3. Health Services—Medicinal Cannabis LegislationHon PAULA BENNETT (Deputy Leader—National) to the Prime MinisterHealth Services—Medicinal Cannabis Legislation3. Hon PAULA BENNETT (Deputy Leader—National) to the Prime Minister: Does he stand by all his Government's policies and actions?Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS (Acting Prime Minister): Yes.Hon Paula Bennett: Does he support loose-leaf cannabis being available through the Government's medicinal cannabis bill?Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: What the Government supports is a sense of commitment to the law change which people like Helen Kelly were asking for which is not accommodated for in the National Party's legislation which if they'd have consulted with us if they had any good faith if they had any integrity they would have asked us beforehand and we could have helped them. And we still stand ready to help them.Hon Paula Bennett: Does he support loose-leaf cannabis being available through the Government's medicinal cannabis bill?Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: What the Government supports is the bill that we put up.Hon Members: Answer the question.Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: I'll answer the question—I'm famous for it—ha ha! Being frank and answering questions is my specialty. Can I just say what the Government supports is what we put up in the first hundred years of being a new Government—not after nine years of nothing—Hon Members: A hundred years!Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: In the first hundred days of being in Government—yes the first hundred days sorry [Interruption]—actually it has crossed my mind—SPEAKER: Order! I am going to ask the Acting Prime Minister to complete it but I think the volume's got so high now around the House that the sound system is being interfered with. I think we'll stay in this millennium anyway.Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: I was talking futuristically and optimistically and that's why I confused the 100 days with 100 years. But in the first 100 days we put the legislation before this House and had a select committee study and at every point of that select committee study the National Party members had a chance to put changes in.Hon Michael Woodhouse: And they took that chance.Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: No. They didn't do a thing. The very day the report came back to this House they turn up with a bill that they hadn't even shown the other side of the House the contents of and it sits in a ballot box and may never see the light of day—and that member's career looks like it may not see the light of day either.Hon Paula Bennett: How does he reconcile those comments with the fact that the National Party has repeatedly asked the select committee to include important detail like whether loose-leaf cannabis will be available and has offered to work more collaboratively?Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: One should not have to remind that member that the bill will be going before a second reading and on to a full committee of the whole House and at each point they can make a constructive contribution. Please do so.Hon Paula Bennett: So does he support loose-leaf cannabis being available through the Government's medicinal cannabis bill?Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: Again we don't answer questions about our—[Interruption]. We don't answer questions—[Interruption].SPEAKER: Order! Now that is enough. Mr King was probably the worst because I could hear him over all of the people in between. But I will ask people to settle down.Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: We don't answer questions reflecting our own personal opinion. This is a coalition and a very successful one at that. It is our want to consult all of our colleagues before such an answer is given. So if a member like that gets up and says Does he support …" then I have to tell her: think about the Government in its totality not just one of its major stars. Thank you.Hon Paula Bennett: Does he believe that loose-leaf cannabis should incur an excise tax?Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: Could that member ask the question again?Hon Paula Bennett: Happily. Does he believe that loose-leaf cannabis should incur an excise tax?Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: Again I have to tell that member that my personal opinion is not what's governing this country; it's my colleagues and what they think as well: the ones behind me and all the ones over there. So we'll have a full-scale discussion and what our conclusions are will be reflected in the second reading of the bill and at the committee stage at the time in which we are able to change it if we have to.Hon Paula Bennett: Well does he agree with the executive director of the Drug Foundation who said Mr Reti's bill "provides the detail a lot of people wanted" and "The beauty of the National bill [is] they've done a tonne of work and it lays out quite a few things."?Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: Well that is a comedy. If the National Party had done a tonne of work then where was it in the last nine years?Hon Chris Hipkins: Has he seen reports of the comments made by the former Associate Minister of Health arguing that he had been advocating for these changes for nine years and was blocked from making them by the previous National Government?Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: I not only have seen such reports but I was absolutely alarmed by them.Hon Paula Bennett: Does the Prime Minister support loose-leaf cannabis being available through the Government's medicinal cannabis bill?Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: For the umpteenth time my colleagues and I will not be getting up and giving our personal opinions. We understand how democracy works and what this Government will do—Hon Paula Bennett: Point of order. Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: I'll get around to answering your question.Hon Paula Bennett: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I'm not asking for a personal opinion; I'm asking the Prime Minister—SPEAKER: The member will resume her seat.Hon Paula Bennett: Well that's how he answered it.SPEAKER: I find it hard to believe that the member would interrupt—interrupt—a member who's answering a question to complain about the quality of the answer before it's finished.Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: That member needs to understand that this Government governs on the basis of democracy and consultation and when we've had our full consultation at the end of the second reading before it goes to the full committee stage as everybody up there knows every chance will be given for changes to be made. Until that happens we will not be expressing our personal opinion because it does not help.Hon Paula Bennett: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. Twice now I've had answers that he says he can't voice a personal opinion on. I'm not asking for the member's personal opinion; I'm asking for the Prime Minister to state what the Government's position is.SPEAKER: And if the member had listened to the answer that was in the first sentence.Hon Paula Bennett: Does the Government support loose-leaf cannabis being available?Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: I have to just repeat the last three answers because the same question has been put in the same way. It puts me in mind of that 1965 song by a man called Len Barry which goes "One two three … like takin' candy [off] a baby.""