7. Question No. 7—HealthHon Dr AYESHA VERRALL (Labour) to the Associate Minister of HealthQuestion No. 7—Health7. Hon Dr AYESHA VERRALL (Labour) to the Associate Minister of Health: Does she stand by all her statements and actions?Hon CASEY COSTELLO (Associate Minister of Health): Yes in particular what I said in answering the member's question in the House yesterday when I said When I received this delegation I provided a range of information to officials including things like Hansard … and previous policy proposals around smoke-free and vaping to help guide conversations. The health paper came back setting out a number of areas … [to provide] advice [on] … and I marked that I wanted advice on [each] of them". That health briefing refers to proposals and notes. I want to be clear they were not my proposals or notes. They were not things I had written. This was general information I had provided officials and I'm sure they can verify this.Hon Dr Ayesha Verrall: Why did she tell Radio New Zealand "I haven't looked at a freeze on the excise duty at all" when the notes she gave to officials said "Freeze the excise rates on smoked tobacco for three years starting 31 December 2023"?Hon CASEY COSTELLO: It is unfortunate the actions have been distorted by a media article. The fact is I was asked a question about whether I had sought specific advice. I had not sought specific advice which is the question I answered and I referred to a range of advice I had sought from officials.Hon Dr Ayesha Verrall: How does she explain her statement to RNZ that "I had not sought that advice at all." when she had requested it through the documents she provided to the Ministry of Health?Hon CASEY COSTELLO: As I said I stated I had not sought specific advice on the excise tax. Hon Dr Ayesha Verrall: Who wrote or collated the notes that said "Freeze the excise rate on smoked tobacco" that she gave to health officials?Hon CASEY COSTELLO: The documentation is a range of historical policy positions and notes that were held in New Zealand First policy positions. Some of it relates to things that were passed in the legislation when New Zealand First was in Government. This is a range of points and positions and it's about five pages long.Hon Dr Duncan Webb: Point of order. That was a very specific question about a very particular document and it wasn't answered because it was asked what the authorship of that document was. To say that there's a series of documents from the New Zealand First policy library doesn't come close to an answer.Hon Chris Bishop: Speaking to the point of order the Minister answered it in extensive detail. She said it's about a five-page-long document based on historical New Zealand First Party positions from a range of different sources including the past. The Minister actually gave far more information frankly than I think she is required to as a Minister in the interests of illuminating the public debate on this issue.Hon Dr Ayesha Verrall: The question cannot have been credibly answered because how could a historical document contain a policy proposal for December 2023?SPEAKER: Well with all due respect that wasn't necessarily the case in the answer that was given. But I will ask the Minister to have another crack at answering it if that's OK.Hon CASEY COSTELLO: The pages of notes that were provided to the officials were a compilation of information that was extracted; the authors I'm not sure of. They were historical policy positions.Hon Dr Ayesha Verrall: Who wrote the note that said "Freeze the excise tax on smoked tobacco in 2023" that she gave to officials?Hon CASEY COSTELLO: I couldn't tell you the author of that document. It's in the document archives. Hon Dr Ayesha Verrall: Do things in her office just appear out of thin air?SPEAKER: That's not a reasonable question.Hon Dr Ayesha Verrall: How can the public trust her to take action on youth vaping when she is secretly sending notes to officials that nicotine isn't harmful?SPEAKER: No hang on. No that's not an acceptable question either.Hon Dr Duncan Webb: Why not?SPEAKER: Because you cannot make an allegation that notes that were sent to officials—that the member asking the question knows about—were secret. Quite ridiculous.Hon Dr Ayesha Verrall: How can the public trust her to take action on youth vaping when she is sending notes to officials saying that nicotine isn't harmful?Hon CASEY COSTELLO: As I've stated in the policy positions that we have taken I'm seeking a broad range of advice including how we deter youth from vaping and taking up and also how we give the tools to those who are addicted to nicotine to quit smoking.Hon Dr Ayesha Verrall: Did she deny seeking advice on a tobacco excise tax freeze when asked by Radio New Zealand despite having actually sought that advice because she did not want to be questioned on her plans to give tax breaks to the tobacco industry?Hon CASEY COSTELLO: No."