| 2nd June 2007 |
HOKITIKA RALLIES AGAINST THERAPEUTIC CONTROL BILL
2.6.07
The organisers of the Hokitika rally protesting against the government’s Therapeutic Goods and Medicines Bill are thrilled with the turnout of well over 100 people in the town today.
Led by bagpiper, Dr. Barney Mowat, the banner and placard-carrying rally marched down Hokitika’s main street to the town’s clock tower and back again where they listened to speakers and gave their own testimonies of benefiting from alternative treatments where pharmaceutical drugs had failed.
While Labour’s West Coast Tasman M.P. declined to attend without giving any reason, National List M.P. Chris Auchinvole spoke strongly against the Bill and expressed National’s commitment to defeating it in Parliament. Mr. Auchinvole also entered into the spirit of the occasion by carrying a placard in the march.
Co-organiser Jackie Douglas expressed delight at the numbers who attended which she said compared more than favourably with numbers attending similar rallies in much larger population centres. “I was especially pleased with the strength of support and feeling opposing this highly unpopular and restrictive Bill. Even after the march and speeches had finished, most people stayed around to discuss the proposed legislation. This was a great show of community spirit", Mrs. Douglas said.
Co-organiser David Tranter said that in 16 years of campaigning on social issues he had never previously seen anything to compare with the Hokitika business community’s spirited support in sponsoring advertisements endorsing the rally and gathering signatures for the nationwide petition against the Bill. “That, and the rally itself, were the most effective expressions of community opposition I have ever seen against a highly unpopular piece of legislation”, he said.
Mrs. Douglas said that if the government persists with the Bill, Hokitika hasn’t seen the last of protest action on this issue. "There have been a few terse words uttered in this campaign. And there will undoubtedy be more to come", she said.
|
|
