Swarbrick ChlöeCHLÖE SWARBRICK (Green): E Te Māngai tēnā koe. I want to address a few of the points that have been raised predominantly by my colleagues across the Chamber in Opposition. But I firstly just want to speak to the crux of what we are debating in this clause that being clause 8A and celebrate the fact that in this clause we have managed to get two substantive amendments to the legislation—two of three substantive amendments to the legislation—they being the inclusion of local native strains of cannabis in Aotearoa New Zealand but also the amendment which will guarantee that we have these regulations made public and functioning within a year.I wanted to address the point made by Dr Shane Reti with regard to best practice and just once again drive home that whilst I recognise and actually quite deeply respect the huge amount of research that he's done in travelling overseas we're both aware as most people who are engaged in this dialogue across the committee are that there are a number of different ways that we can go about producing this regulatory scheme as there are a huge breadth of different experiences in different jurisdictions. That best practice I think is to a certain extent subjective. It depends what the outcomes are that we're looking for and I think that if we were for example to measure it against the key performance indicator of perhaps who's able to access it and who it works well for—the efficacy of the system—and whether we manage to make a dent or a reduction in the black or illegal market all of those different things are variables to take into account when we are considering the notion of best practice.To that point I wanted to address the concerns that have been raised time and again with regard to the delegation for the creation of these powers to the Ministry of Health. We've heard that we're supposedly throwing them away to faceless officials. I'm not sure who the National Party thought were making laws or legislation when they were in power. But it is indeed you know the people who are behind the scenes who are producing the research and the evidence which informs the decisions that we end up making as lawmakers. This is incredibly important because there is going to be an expert body that is going to come together and consult with the public and with stakeholders in the production of the regulations that we end up putting forward by the end of next year.That is an important point because I mean we've actually already been through quite thorough consultation in the creation of this legislation—that being the select committee process which many members from different parties in this House were involved in. But I also wanted to drive home the point that I made earlier which was raised in debates by Dr Shane Reti around the tighter regulatory framework which he proposed in his Supplementary Order Paper (SOP). To that point he raised the types of persons who may be involved or engaged in the industry as it develops and I just again wanted to drive home the concerns about inequity and about Te Tiriti o Waitangi when we are looking at excluding people who have already served their time for being convicted under for example the Misuse of Drugs Act but also those people who are looking at turning over a new leaf and looking to those different jurisdictions that Dr Shane Reti refers to. The types of people in those more conservative jurisdictions who are presently benefiting and profiting from a medicinal cannabis industry are quite different from the demographics who've been targeted and penalised under the war on drugs.I also wanted to refer explicitly to one of the stakeholders who's already been raised in this debate—that being Manu Caddie of Hikurangi Enterprises who I referenced earlier stating that I'd had spoken to him this morning. He mentioned that he thinks that what is being proposed in the Government legislation is actually far superior than what was proposed in the SOP and that is because of those concerns around inequity but also the potential stifling proposed in the SOP around community-based organisations getting a foothold in this market and it not being something that can be captured by the likes of Big Pharma". So finally I just wanted to say that we're really happy—stoked if I may say—with the inclusion of native strains which is something that the Greens advocated for strongly on the basis of what has been raised actually by stakeholders and also with the narrowing of the time line and the clarity provided to the industry and to patients within 12 months."