Wall LouisaLOUISA WALL (Labour—Manurewa): Tēnā koe e Te Heamana. Tēnā koutou katoa. It's nice to take a call on this new clause 5A which is included in Supplementary Order Paper (SOP) 177 the Minister's SOP. But I want to make the point that it actually wasn't part of the Health Committee's deliberations and in fact it has come about through the intervention of New Zealand First. I want to acknowledge my colleague Jenny Marcroft who is in the House today because in fact it was also in response to 74 submissions that we received that actually said that the exemption should be premised on a doctor's or nurse practitioner's certification of palliation. So that's really important because the context of this particular amendment is actually all about verifying that the person who is using cannabis for a medicinal purpose is doing so because of palliation.It's really interesting—I've been listening to a lot of the debate about what palliation is. Well in fact our Ministry of Health in 2017 produced a palliative care action plan and it is actually quite clear within that plan what palliation is and I'm assuming that doctors and nurse practitioners around Aotearoa New Zealand have read it. So if people want a definition of who possibly would benefit from this particular clause: Palliative care is for people of all ages with a life-limiting or life-threatening condition. It aims to: optimise an individual's quality of life until death by addressing the person's physical psychosocial spiritual and cultural needs; support the individual's family and whānau and other caregivers where needed through the illness and after death." And in fact that is exactly what we heard in the Health Committee. When I look at that select committee process we actually had of the 1786 submissions 584 that dealt with the exception and statutory defence provision that in fact is included in this new clause 5A. Those submitters came to us because of pain. Those submitters came to us because they were experiencing cancer epilepsy multiple sclerosis—a number of debilitating conditions. So the responsiveness that we've seen within this clause I think must be commended.I guess the other issue I wanted to really highlight is that the purpose of verification is to ensure that until the medicinal cannabis scheme through regulation has been constructed—and it will be constructed from our perspective with the medicinal cannabis advisory committee whose sole purpose is to consider the current prescribing process for medicinal cannabis products and information needs for clinicians. It is incredibly important. The reason I highlight that is it seems that the other side are pre-empting what we actually believe the public deserve a right to be involved in. When I say "the public" we are talking about health practitioners interested parties—i.e. those who came to the select committee those who actually are using cannabis in a medicinal manner because of their debilitating illnesses.We heard very clearly from Māori—for example Hāpai te Hauora when they presented—who were very clear that the composition of this medicinal cannabis advisory committee must include those that this bill is relevant to. So Māori Pacific the growers clinicians—having everybody that has a vested interest in ensuring through regulation that our medicinal cannabis scheme is fit for purpose is incredibly important.I make these points because we were really clear through our deliberations that it wasn't for us to set regulation and in fact it isn't for Parliament to set regulations. Regulations are not done by Parliament; they're done by and through processes such as developing this medicinal cannabis advisory committee. So if the National Party want to participate in that process ka pai. Write a submission be actively engaged in the next phase but let's be very clear that this new clause 5A is all about verifying that people who are currently using cannabis for medicinal purposes will be able to do so without prosecution. Kia ora."