Wagner NickyHon NICKY WAGNER (National): Thank you very much Mr Assistant Speaker. The speaker who has just sat down Jenny Marcroft is absolutely right. There's been so much discussion about this issue and about this bill that some of the things that we've talked about tonight that we expected to see in the bill aren't there.During the 2017 election Labour actively campaigned on introducing legislation and I quote what they said Legislation to make medicinal cannabis available for people with terminal illness and those in chronic pain." When asked on one of the TV debates the leader Jacinda Ardern—she was asked "Would Labour legalise cannabis for medicinal use?" And what did she say? "Absolutely; yes."But this bill which was rushed through so it could get into the 100 days so that Labour could say they've got some runs on the board so that they could be seen to be trying to keep their election promises does neither of these things. And it's actually contrary to the Minister's statements. It does not make cannabis available for people with terminal illnesses and it certainly doesn't even attempt to consider people with chronic pain—absolutely not.All it does is create a statutory defence for the possession and use of illicit cannabis by people who are terminally ill and expected by the doctors to die within 12 months. But that doesn't make medicinal cannabis legal. It doesn't address access. It doesn't address availability. It doesn't address the quality of the product. And it certainly doesn't address affordability. It doesn't even provide a legal way for terminally ill patients to get the medicines that they require.What it does do is to say that if you're terminally ill—very very ill—and you can manage to negotiate to purchase and possess cannabis the State won't convict you. This bill has been rushed. It's ill-thought-out. It's all about feel-good but it will make very little difference to the status quo and it is certainly not what the Labour Party promised. In fact the Dominion Post in their editorial called it "a halfway house of legal and moral horrors" and I agree.It's no wonder that campaigners who believed Labour's election rhetoric have been hugely disappointed by the outcome especially because the bill completely ignores anyone who needs medicinal cannabis for pain relief or any other specific purposes—in fact anyone that's not in their last year of life. Of course the vast majority of people who want this option are certainly not dying right now. Campaigners would rather see a wider definition—a definition that includes those with on-going severe or debilitating conditions as well as the terminally ill and I would support that. From my experience of working in the disability sector the needs of those people should be included.The other two parts of the bill really have no real effect for anybody who wants medicinal cannabis right now. There is an intention to set up a medical cannabis scheme but absolutely no detail—the work hasn't been done—and then there's the confirmation of the regulations that were passed last year that cannabinoids are no longer considered a controlled drug. So National does support this bill but sees it for what it is: an interim measure; a stop-gap. It's no real hard solution. There's much more research to be done and much more work that is needed.Just listening to the discussion in the House nobody wants people to be in pain as they die and this bill while untidy and ineloquent is a step forward. But what we really need and what we were falsely promised is far more far-reaching legislation—legislation that tackles legal supply quality of product affordability and particularly a mechanism that appropriately matches patients with medicinal needs. Just loosening up the availability of illegal loose leaf which isn't quality controlled and is often smoked—which is another health hazard—doesn't cut the mustard.The key of course is to separate and utilise the cannabidiol which has the potential therapeutic effect from the THC which has the psychoactive component and for that we need a lot more research and work. So National sees this bill as a tentative step in the right direction and I support it to go to select committee where we might beat it into some sort of shape. Kia ora."