Parmar ParmjeetDr PARMJEET PARMAR (National): Thank you Mr Speaker. That was a very interesting contribution where the member just wanted us to have faith in them. How can we have faith in them? This year 2019 is going to be the most important year in this election cycle. Yes I know some would be thinking that it's next year 2020 when we are going to have the general election and that should actually be the most important year. Of course that's going to be a very crucial year because we are going to have the general election and people are eagerly waiting for National to be back in Government. I'm calling on the Government saying that this is your year to show up because if the Government will continue to talk around their promises people are going to get more and more frustrated. That is what we are hearing from people.How can I forget that the Prime Minister has said that this is going to be the year of delivery—the year of delivery? So far we have had in these 18 months just talk talk and talk and we know that talk is cheap. The issue that is in front of them—the big issue that they are tackling at the moment—is legalising cannabis. Yes that is the big issue in front of the Government at the moment—to legalise cannabis. They haven't put enough information out and that is what they are busy doing. On this side we want to base our judgment on evidence.When they talk about evidence I don't know what kind of evidence they are looking at. We look at proper scientific evidence. There is clear evidence that with cannabis it has adverse impacts on the developing brain. I'm not just talking about people who can make choices in their lives—I'm not talking about teenagers I'm not talking about people in their early 20s; I'm also talking about unborn babies. We know—there is enough evidence—that if pregnant women use cannabis there will be adverse effects on the brains of those unborn babies. Yep we know alcohol is bad during pregnancy. We know smoking cigarettes is bad during pregnancy but still there are some women who continue to drink they continue to smoke. With easy access to cannabis there will be more women accessing cannabis during pregnancy. That is going to have a huge number of social implications. This Government is making this move at the cost of our future generations and our future generations are not going to forget this Government for this step that they are taking.There are so many things that are still unclear about what this Government wants to do in this space but then we also heard about their move to tackle climate change through their legislation—the approach that they have taken.We know there is clear evidence what should be done. There is technology that is available but the Government doesn't want to adopt the technology. They don't want to look at the proper scientific evidence for tackling climate change. They don't want to utilise technology to find novel solutions. Instead they want to impose costs on people and have negative impacts on our economy. I challenge the Minister for Economic Development and the Minister for the Environment the Hon David Parker on his statement that their approach is not hurting our economy or the environment. It's definitely hurting our environment and economy and I'm here specifically talking about biotechnology genetic modification and gene editing because—Kieran McAnulty: Ah there it is.Dr PARMJEET PARMAR: —yes yes—because that side is still stuck in that 2001 mentality. Yes they're still stuck in the late 1990s and 2001 understanding of what genetic modification or gene editing is. This field has advanced really fast in the last 10 to 15 years and I ask the Minister to go out and connect with some people to understand how this technology can help us tackle climate change and other environmental issues and benefit our economy too. I would ask the Minister to make his first stop at AgResearch. AgResearch high metabolisable energy ryegrass—funded by New Zealand's taxpayers—is being trialled in the US and we don't know when we're going to see the benefits of that grass. It could be 10 years it could be 15 years. We know that that's looking really promising to reduce methane emissions but the Government doesn't want to know that. AgResearch says that it's estimated that with that grass we can raise GDP by up to $5 billion. How can the Minister say that that's not hurting our economy or hurting our environment?We are a small country we are a small economy and other countries including Australia have changed their stance towards gene editing. That is what we need to think about because we're competing with all these nations and we need to have this new approach a rethink towards this technology but this Government wants to remain anti-science.