Bennett David; Verrall AyeshaHon DAVID BENNETT (National): When the Minister said that preparatory work has been undertaken but not to the stage of the parliamentary process has she got a draft of the legislation that she's received from the Ministry of Health or have they prepared a draft?Hon Dr AYESHA VERRALL (Minister for Food Safety): No. Preparatory policy work had begun but no there is no draft.Hon DAVID BENNETT (National): And are there any outstanding issues from that preparatory work?Hon Dr AYESHA VERRALL (Minister for Food Safety): It's work in progress and I don't have a report for the member on it sorry.Hon DAVID BENNETT (National): And when was the last time that preparatory work was revisited by this Minister or any other Minister in this Government?Hon Dr AYESHA VERRALL (Minister for Food Safety): It wasn't revisited by me of course—that work occurred prior to COVID and the question now is whether the work that was done is included in the wider therapeutic products bill which would bring in other provisions relating to medicines more generally.Hon DAVID BENNETT (National): So why has it been a year since any work's been done on this and this Parliament is expected to put this bill through in a short period of time for a failure of the Government to do their job?Hon Dr AYESHA VERRALL (Minister for Food Safety): The officials working on that bill at the Ministry of Health also were part of the COVID-19 response.Hon DAVID BENNETT (National): Excuse me but you've had a year and was it immediately before COVID or—what was the problem? Why haven't you revisited it? You're a new Minister. You haven't even gone back. You said that you haven't revisited this bill yet you're willing to bring it to Parliament and ask us for an extension when you've had work in progress and as the new Minister you should have undertaken to make sure that that work is continuing or that there is some level of progress.Hon Dr AYESHA VERRALL (Minister for Food Safety): Forgive me; I think I misunderstood the member's question. Yes I have asked for the work to be progressed while I've been Minister but there is much more work to go on it before it's ready to come to the House and this bill to extend the regulations—we do need the extension in order to be able to produce the final piece of legislation to replace it.Hon DAVID BENNETT (National): So let's clarify that. So before you said that you hadn't asked for anything to be done. You have asked for something to be done and on what dates?Hon Dr AYESHA VERRALL (Minister for Food Safety): I'm afraid I cannot tell you the date I asked for the work to be done but I have asked for it to be done. It was prior to Christmas when I first learnt about this issue. But I guess the point for the member is that the broader piece of work that this issue will be resolved through now brings in a lot of other matters that are included in the future therapeutic goods bill.Hon DAVID BENNETT (National): So if you knew before Christmas why hadn't you signalled to the House that there would be no reason that we would be able to do it at this late stage when you're going to involve other—CHAIRPERSON (Adrian Rurawhe): Can I just interrupt the member. The section or part of the bill—you need to ask questions or speak to the content of the bill. The nature of how it got to the point of being a bill is not the principal subject matter that the committee is dealing with.Hon DAVID BENNETT: Mr Chair the bill is only one line and the line is to change the date. So that is the content of the bill—it's the date. So we're asking why the date needs to be changed.CHAIRPERSON (Adrian Rurawhe): I think if you listened carefully to my ruling you would understand the point that I was making.