afternoon and thank all the members who are making contributions on what
is an important
bill this afternoon. Thank you, Madam chair.
Thank you, Madam chair. I call Chris Bishop. Thank you very
much Madam Deputy Speaker. The
member who just resumed her seat
is absolutely right. This is
a very important issue and a very important
bill. I have not been given the
honour of serving on the
Health select committee,
select committee, but I'm very interested in this issue. I
worked with Dr Shane Reti and Woodhouse and
some colleagues on this. As
Mr Woodhouse pointed out, a vast amount
of the work on this has been done by
Shane Reti, bringing his years
of clinical expertise, governance and
policymaking to the issue and has
done a superb job. I
thank my colleagues on this
side for indulgence to speak on the debate
on the second reading. Madam
Speaker, the bill that has come back from the
select committee is defish in a
number of different respects.
select committee is defish in a
dificient in a number of different respects. You only have to
look at the response from the public
and
Foundation, and A member of Medicinal Cannabis earth
earth, when the bill was brought back some
months ago, to gauge the level of
disappointment at what had come back
from select committee, submitters
who turned up in good
faith and asked for greater access, who asked
for a comprehensive regime to
be developed, felt like they were
not listened to and they
were right, because the bill that has come back
is as deficient as it was
when it went into the
select committee in the first place. I think it is fair,
Madam Speaker, to describe it as
a Clayton's medicinal
Clayton's medicinal cannabis bill. It was
Clayton's medicinal cannabis bill.
they said in the election campaign they would do and in the
sense that it provides a statutory defence
for those who have a terminal illness
in the most loosest way possible, I
suppose it liberalises the
law around medicinal cannabis. So the
PM could
around medicinal cannabis. So the PM
means any hospice worker or hospital or family member or a husband or
a wife who happens to have marijuana,
who then happens to give it to
someone with a terminal illness
is committing a crime,
acting illegally
illegal. It only means that a very few amount of people are able
to rely on the statutory defence.
few amount of people are able to rely on the statutory defence. In
the National Party's view, it allows
for
the National Party's view, it allows
not believe should be permitted, because we believe it will be
a backdoor way to decriminalisation or
legalisation and in a funny way it
significantly limits access, or
at least has far less
access to medicinal cannabis
medicinal cannabis than people who submitted
submitted on the committee actually want. Of cower of course t biggest
want. Of cower of course t biggest problem with the
want. Of cower of course t biggest
biggest problem with the bill, is despite saying it sets up
a medicinal cannabis regime, it
does not do that. It subcontracts
out to officials
officials policy questions that should be the preserve of parent.
Where can you grow
medicinal
who are eligible for medicinal cannabis
who are eligible for medicinal
fundamental questions that cannot just be left to officials and
subcontracted off
just be left to officials and
Well, we will see. So the bill that went into the select committee was
flawed, the bill that's come back is
flawed as well. What are we
seeking to do in the National Party
led by
gaps in the legislative regime. We are seeking to in good faith provide
the ballast, the substance, that's
just not there. We've gone away
and done the work, led by Shane and
he's been informed by international
best practice, he's been around
the world... Use his full name. Dr
Reti has been around the world and
talked to international experts. He
met with people in various regimes
where medicinal cannabis has
been well understood for a
number of years. We've done the work. It's
been through the
through the Parliamentary Counsel Office and we are offering up our
supplementary order
supplementary order papers to the government parties, the Greens,
New Zealand First and
the Labour Party, in good faith and we hope we will
make progress. I want to touch
briefly on the advance notice of the
Government SOPs that may
come later. This extension to
palliation does not deal with
one fundamental
it doesn't do anything about the problem of hospice members
and hospital workers and family members
still committing criminal acts.
Russell Brown pointed this out on
fundamental problem at the heart of the bill. The
second thing is palliation is an interesting word,
but I don't know what it means
we are yet to see how lit be defined.
New Zealand First has put out a
press release congratulating
itself on the bill, but we don't
know if it was a good idea. The definition of
palliation was not considered by
the select committee. I
strongly suspect it won't be backed
by official evidence if health officials were
asked about it. So we're not really
sure about that
particular extension. Of course, we still have
that the Government SOP improved the bill very much. The
fundamental problem with this is the lack
of the regime that it puts in place. I
want to end my speech, Madam
Speaker, with a genuine good faith plea to
the Greens in particular,
New Zealand First, and Labour.
The National Party has moved quite a
long way on the issue
of medicinal cannabis. It's well known
in our history that in government a bill
was not advanced. We took
history that in government a bill was not advanced. We took action
but we came into opposition, as my good friend Dr Reti said, we heard
the voices of patients, all of us
on the National Party have had people
in our office talking about the
benefits that medicinal cannabis can
provide for them or their loved ones
and our colleagues sat
on the Health Committee and heard submitters talk
about how New Zealand needed to
bring itself into line with lots of
other countries, which recognise
that in specific circumstances
for specific illnesses or ailments,
medicinal cannabis can
have some effect. We listened. We
listened and we did the work. We went
away and we came up with a regime. We're in
Opposition, and were we in
government we would put us into law
and said that we did it. We're in opposition. I'm not one,
Madam Speaker, who
Speaker, who believes that opposition should be
about saying no all the time. We vote no on
lots of bills in this House, we will keep
doing that. I'm not one who got into
politics to say no all the time. I
got into Parliament
make New Zealand a better place, reform the laws that need reforming,
to put in place things
that will make New Zealand a better place. I
fervently believe the ray we have
developed in
developed in opposition will improve the bill and it will make
New Zealand a better place. So my plea
to the government parties
is talk to us, talk to Dr Reti, talk
to me, talk to our health team, about
trying to get what we have
proposed into the existing Government bill,
the
into the existing Government bill,
member's bill in Dr Shane Reti's name, we have condensed
that down to three specific SOPs
that replicate the bill. They are designed and
ready to go, to be inserted
into the government legislation.
government legislation. It fills the gaps. Dr Reti has
outlined what it does
gaps. Dr Reti has outlined what it
grow, who can grow it, the criteria you have to fulfil to be a licence
operator, how you will
you have to fulfil to be a licence
will be determined, how pharmacists will dispense the
rules that they have to follow. It fills in the gap
on government legislation. We
think the government regime, the
government legislation was deficient
in a number of respects. With
we think our
think our proposal significantly improves it. They are
comprehensive, informed by best practice
and crucially, if I could finish
on this
faster. That's the other thing that submitters and the public want. They
want this in place. They
really do. They frankly look at the
Parliament and wonder why it's
taken so long. There's lots of reasons for that.
I'm telling you now, a regime
where the regulations only come out
in
public. We offer up our SOPs in good faith. I
faith. I hope the Government will look at them.
look at them. I call Chloe Swarbrck.
I call Chloe Swarbrck.
Speaker, and greetings to the House. May I say that I am Stoked
to be standing in support of the Misuse of
Drugs
Drugs (Medicinal Cannabis) Amendment Bill.
Bill. Madam Speaker, at the end of Jan,
earlier this year, when
my medicinal cannabis
cannabis members bill was before this House, there were a
number of patients