Watch: Simon Bridges denies National's medicinal cannabis bill is a 'stunt' after tough question

Simon Bridges has denied National's new medicinal cannabis bill is a "stunt" during a press conference today.

1 NEWS' political editor Jess Mutch asked why his party has put forward a bill now after nine years in power.

"Can you see why people sitting at home would think you had nine years to do something about this and it looks like a bit of a stunt now you're in opposition?" Mutch asked.

Mr Bridges gave a long answer on why the bill isn't a stunt and how it has long been in the works for the party.

"I think if you call it a stunt you have to contend with the fact that this is a number of months of work as Dr Shane Reti at his own expense went to the US, spending a considerable period of times looking at the various regimes and a number of prolonged discussions among our caucus.

"I think our caucus message was we don't believe the Government's doing is good enough, put up or shut up, give us a regime that we think will be workable for New Zealanders and I think they have delivered that in spades."

Mr Bridges earlier said the Government's current bill "utterly fails" at creating the right regulatory and legislative controls alongside giving Kiwis greater medicinal cannabis access to ease suffering.

"So we will vote against it. It includes only minor improvements to how cannabidiol products are treated, which the previous National Government had already facilitated," he said in a statement.

"It is also totally silent on how a medicinal cannabis regime would operate in practice. The Government has said it will increase access now and leave it to officials to think through the controls and the consequences later."

Mr Bridges said National's member's bill, which would only go before Parliament if pulled out of the ballot, was the result of "significant work" by MPs and reflected "a blend of international best practice, tailored to New Zealand".

It proposes a licensing regime and approval for medicinal cannabis products in the way medicine is approved by Metsafe.

The party supported the Government's medicinal bill in its first reading earlier this year; however said further support was based on select committee changes.