Brown SimeonSIMEON BROWN (National—Pakuranga): Thank you Madam Chair for the opportunity to take a call on the Misuse of Drugs Amendment Bill which is slowly progressing its way through the House. I thank the Minister for the explanation and overview that he gave on this bill. I would like to ask the Minister a few questions and I think it's important to go through these systematically. The first question I'd like to discuss is in relation to the part of the bill which the National Party does support and that is in relation to the increased penalties that are going to be put in place.Chlöe Swarbrick: Punishment.SIMEON BROWN: Punishment" is what your confidence and supply agreement partner there calls it Minister. So the question here is whether we support the increased penalty or reclassification of AMB-FUBINACA and 5F-ADB as class A drugs which the National Party does support. The question that I do ask the Minister here is: why did he decide to use this process the legislative process to classify those two substances as class A drugs and why did he not use his powers under the Misuse of Drugs Act to classify those drugs when he received advice I think in April or May last year that they should be classified as class A drugs? So I guess the point that I'm making here is that this issue has been before the House for quite some time. This issue was a matter which I brought to the House through a member's bill last year which was supported by New Zealand First for the vast majority of its process through the House before they pulled their support. But I guess the question here is: why has the Government not taken the urgency which it said that it would do in relation to actually taking these two substances seriously? We know that there have been around 80 deaths—80 deaths—caused by those two substances over the last—Darroch Ball: What was your bill going to do?SIMEON BROWN: —18 months. Take some action Mr Ball and actually deal with these issues. But what's happened here is that the Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters your leader said on 31 July last year that this issue would be dealt with with urgency and unction and here we are—what's the date today Mr Bayly? Oh it's 7 August 2019. And now we're here finally—sorry it's 6 August. I should always consult the Hon Michael Woodhouse on these issues. He is a numbers guy. He is an accountant and used to run a hospital so he's a fantastic man. But I'd like to bring it back to the point here that this issue has been before the House and it is good that it is finally being dealt with but the question does need to be asked as to why the Minister did not use his powers under the Misuse of Drugs Act to classify these drugs overnight through the process that he had. My second question relates to the new class C1 orders or the temporary class drug orders which are also being put in place and which the National Party is also supporting under this bill. My question relates to the process it's going to take for that to actually come into effect. The Minister will get advice a new drug will be presenting and there will be harm being identified. How quickly will it take for the ministry to be able to put in place or for the Minister to put in place a temporary class order to classify those drugs? And then how long will the process be for those drugs to actually be able to be assessed and then actually be classified? I understand in section 4F "Duration of the temporary class drug order" it will be for approximately a year. Is the Minister confident that that is enough time—seeing that it has taken over a whole year since the Minister received advice on AMB-FUBINACA and 5F-ADB—to give them the classification that those two incredibly harmful drugs actually deserve? So I leave that as my first call and I look forward to the Minister's responses. Thank you."