Seymour David; Kuriger BarbaraHon DAVID SEYMOUR (Associate Minister of Health (Pharmac)): I move That the Misuse of Drugs (Pseudoephedrine) Amendment Bill be now read a third time.I want to first of all start just by acknowledging the group that have been here for the Taranaki Maunga collective redress bill. These bills are something that I'm proud ACT has always supported as our country moves to heal any past wrongs and this particular redress bill in the Taranaki region is a very fine example of that.However we're now here to talk about pseudoephedrine. In particular as winter comes—and it feels like it's been approaching at an accelerating rate in recent weeks wherever you've been in New Zealand—people are going to get those winter ills and chills and I'm very proud that our Government is taking action to rapidly liberalise the supply of pseudoephedrine-based cough and cold medicines.The background to this is that over a decade ago the then National-led Government banned pseudoephedrine-based cough medicines on the basis that if only we did so we would cut off—or at least severely constrain—the supply of P which at that time was being manufactured in clan labs by criminal agents who were buying up the pseudoephedrine and then using that to manufacture P. So as logic went it wasn't the worst idea in the world: cut off the P supply of source given the absolutely horrific harm that P does to so many people in New Zealand and continues to do today. That is the sad clue: it continues to do today". Because what happens when pseudoephedrine cough and cold medicines were banned is not that we ended the P epidemic; it's not that we reduced the consumption of P. What actually happened is that those people in the business of selling it started to connect with criminal elements offshore and created more sophisticated ways of sourcing P from bigger badder criminals and managed to bring it in at a lower price and make it more available to P addicts than ever before. That is a real tragedy but it has a couple of implications for us here in New Zealand today.The first is I'm proud to be part of a Government—even though some people in the Government were associated with the ban—that says that if something isn't working we'll stop doing it and do something better. We actually need more of that in New Zealand politics. There is far too much of people refusing to change course when the facts change. As Sir John Maynard Keynes once said—economist more popular on that side of the House I'd have to say—"When the facts change they change my mind. What do you do?" Here the facts are not as hoped and so we're changing the policy.But the second implication of these facts: that we still have an enormous problem with P but it is incredibly unlikely that those people sourcing it cheaper and faster and purer than you could ever get it when it was manufactured from buying up pseudoephedrine tablets it's incredibly unlikely that they are going to return to a less efficient more expensive way of manufacturing P that involves going around pharmacies and buying up as many tablets as you can. That is the second fact.The third thing that I think is important is that for a long time New Zealanders who to quote the old advertisement try to soldier on through the winter find that one of the most valuable pieces of medication that is available on the market has been denied them. Now yes in theory right now—before this law passes—you're able to get pseudoephedrine-based cough medicine if you go to your GP and get a prescription. The sad reality is that due to the running-down of primary healthcare in recent years you're much more likely to recover sooner than you get a GP appointment in order to get the prescription and get it. Because of that no pharmacy I'm aware of in New Zealand stocks pseudoephedrine-based cough and cold medication because no one's actually going to get a prescription to have it. That means that New Zealanders have been left worse off.This is something I think we need to talk more about. In a lot of parts of the world if you travel today you kind of get the feeling that they're there to make life easier and more enjoyable wherever it's possible to do that without harming others. When you come back to New Zealand particularly the way it's been in the last few years you get the feeling that the Government is there to regulate and spite you and make life harder just because they can. That is a fundamental change that is needed in New Zealand if we are to get our mojo as a country back. It's initiatives like this while I freely admit is not the biggest thing that the Government's doing—it's not the most important thing that the Government is doing—but it is a gesture towards making life easier and more enjoyable for New Zealanders where it's possible to do so without harming others.So if and when this bill is passed by the House in an hour or two's time it will eventually get the Royal assent from the Governor-General and we will reach a stage in this country where we can honestly say that we're on the path to getting pseudoephedrine medication back on the shelves. It will no longer be a Class B drug under the Misuse of Drugs Act; it will be a Class C drug which is legal to have but still illegal to import large amounts without a licence. So we're still maintaining controls around anything that might be turned into P manufacture perhaps.We will then as the Minister responsible for Medsafe be seeking applications from pharmaceutical companies who would like to send pseudoephedrine-based cough and cold medicines to New Zealand and sell to New Zealanders. I suspect that we'll have good news to deliver about that quite shortly. Once those applications have been made it will be up to New Zealand's businesses for the pharmacies for the retailers to actually decide if they want to be part of this business. If they do want to be part of it then they will be able to import any particular types of pseudoephedrine-based cough and cold medicine that have been consented by Medsafe and sell them to the customers.What that ultimately means is that for those people who have battled through about 14 tough winters with no decent cough and cold medicine in this country we will now have rules that put us in the same place as in Australia as are Canada the United States Britain—other countries that don't seem to have a massive problem emanating from their cough and cold remedies but nonetheless where people are allowed to do things that don't harm anyone else and yet are beneficial to them.I hope that as this Government goes about deregulating rules that don't make sense; that seeks to put the ability of a person to flourish and make a difference in their own lives no matter what their background or who they're from that we will gradually see people start to just open up a little bit and see the world as being a little bit sunnier. Because we no longer have a Government that regulates in haste and repents at leisure. That is what this project of this Government is ultimately about: getting our mojo back and in the case of pseudoephedrine-based cough and cold medicines getting our bounce back just a little bit sooner if we happen to be afflicted by all of those terrible illnesses this winter.For all those who do get sick this winter I'm sorry to hear it. I hope you get well soon and I hope you remember this Government has actually done just a little bit to make a difference to make life easier and more enjoyable for you in those difficult times. Thank you very much Madam Speaker.DEPUTY SPEAKER: The question is that the motion be agreed to."