Bidois DanDAN BIDOIS (National—Northcote): It's a pleasure to take a rise and speak to the first reading of the vaping regulation bill. May I start out by saying to this House: what has taken us so long to get here? We gave this House everything and I'd like to acknowledge the Hon Nicky Wagner. How good is Nicky Wagner everybody? She did a tremendous amount of work to research and put a law together in the member's ballot 2½ years ago. And what has this Government done since then on this issue? Nothing. And it is appalling that we are here 2½ years later where the public of New Zealand and the sector itself have had no certainty over the regulations for the sector. It is frankly appalling that it has taken us so long to get here today not to mention the harm that is being caused potentially to our youth in New Zealand but also to the business sector. I come from an area of Northcote and there are many businesses and some who have gone out of business because of the lack of certainty and the threat of regulation over this sector. I welcome the opportunity to vote in favour of this law but it is frankly appalling that it has taken us so long.From where I sit the benefits of vaping are becoming clearer by the day. It is a fantastic cessation tool. I must disclose that I have been a smoker in the past. I'm not proud of it. Thankfully I haven't smoked a cigarette in quite some years. This is a bill that will do a tremendous amount of work to those remaining 16 percent 17 percent of New Zealanders who are smoking and will help them in fact transition away from this terrible product.It's also going to help us achieve our 2025 smoke-free goal. I want to acknowledge that it is an aspirational goal. Whether we get there will depend on the success of initiatives like this but certainly we all remain committed to this.But I also want to talk about the economic opportunities of this legislation and what it will do to give certainty to those who are manufacturing supplying or selling these products to New Zealanders and talk about the economic job opportunities as a result. I must say I've got scenarios in my own community of Northcote of businesses that have bloomed because of the rise in vaping in New Zealand but they need the certainty to know that this is done in a way that is consistent with the law and therefore this law is important.Research backs this up that there are fantastic benefits. I want to call out the work the Cancer Society has done for researching this and providing us as parliamentarians fantastic resources to research the extent of the benefits but also some of the costs as well from vaping. Some of those costs are very clear. While it is a good cessation tool for some on the flip side it also has the potential to actually have a gateway effect for our youth which is why in fact this law is so important to provide safeguards and to actually say Look if you are under 18 and you want to vape don't vape. You cannot vape in this country."National is a fan of sensible regulation. We're not a party of unfettered access to products. Well even people like Adam Smith would appreciate regulations because regulations essentially allow the playing field to work in a sensible manner and allow businesses and agents to get on with the practice of doing their transactions and business in a legal matter of fashion.But I must come back to the point. We are here after two years of inaction of this Government. It is appalling that now we are here 2½ years later. We are 2½ years behind the ability to actually have this in our society. We are 2½ years down the road of potentially harming our youth providing uncertainty to businesses and it is now incumbent on us to ask ourselves "What is the correct process for this bill to go in?" I know we're going to come to that very soon but it is very concerning that now six months before an election 2½ years after sitting on their hands and doing nothing this Government now wants to rush this legislation through.I do raise this because there are a lot of people that we'd want to hear from in the select committee process. Just to disregard the constitutional arrangements that we have in order to fit the Government's time line to get this through so that they can go out there and say "Look what we've done on vaping." is I think irresponsible and poor policy-making in New Zealand.I look forward to hearing from the vast array of people that this law will affect people like children. How is it going to affect them? You know I talk to kids in my electorate of Northcote. School principals—really want to hear from a vast array of school principals about how this law is going to work. Vaping firms—I'm really keen to hear from them around how we can encourage job opportunities at the same time as addressing some of our health concerns. Researchers and organisations like the Child Cancer Foundation and the Cancer Society—I'm really keen to hear from them about the most up-to-date research that has been done on the positive effects and the negative effects of these products.Things like flavours—that's one thing that I think we should discuss in select committee which is what are the effects of flavours. Actually do we need flavours or do we not? I'm agnostic on that question. I just think it is incumbent on us as good policy makers to have a robust debate around subjects like flavours. That requires that the select committee process be in fact consistent with all other laws that we've been talking about here since I've been a parliamentarian.So we support this bill. We support the work that the Hon Nicky Wagner has done the hard yards to get this law together. We look forward to discussing in select committee some of the nuances of it. There are parts of Nicky Wagner's bill that haven't made it into this draft law around things like child protection. Back when I was a teenager and going on to the fields at Howick College and smoking cigarettes we had these child protection devices on things like lighters so it seems rational that we ought to actually think about what are the protections that we should put in place to protect the youth of today and tomorrow.It is far time that we discussed this law—David Seymour: Far time.DAN BIDOIS: It is beyond the right time to discuss this law. I'm so excited about this law and the fact that it has taken us 2½ years that I'm making slight grammatical errors in my speech. But what I want to say is this: this is fantastic that today we are discussing this law. It is in fact sad that we are discussing it today two years after than we should. So we support this legislation to select committee. We do not support any shortening of the process. We want to hear from the correct and full amount of people that wish to submit. We've got to get this right. Good policy-making requires that we hear from everyone that this bill affects until we get it right until we put in the nuances in this legislation. We support it to select committee."