Newsletter 38
Wow - what a week!
On Monday Minister King finally had to concede that she had failed to find enough MP's in Parliament willing to support her Therapeutic Products Bill and as a result she would be shelving it. All week long the issue and the Governments embarrassing failure has been the focus of great media attention and discussion about what happens next.
Right now its time for 2 things - the first and most important of these is to thank everyone who has done their bit in this fight. This includes each one of you and this all goes to show what people power really can do. A special mention must be made of the following for their crucial support because at the end of the day it was only their determination to stand up for the rights of NZ'ers that stopped the Government getting its way:
- Sue Kedgley and the Green Party,
- Tony Ryall and the National Party
- Hone Harawira and the Maori Party
- Heather Roy and Rodney Hide from ACT
- Peter Brown and Barbara Stewart from NZ First
- Taito Phillip Field and Gordon Copeland
The second matter is to consider what happens next. While this Government back down is a huge success, with the Bill merely "on hold" we all have to remain vigilant. There is no doubt in our minds that the Government plans to have another go as soon as they think they can get the numbers.
We wouldn't be surprised to see concerted PR efforts to discredit opponents of the Bill and the industry itself in the weeks to come and in fact this has already begun with the Government making highly damaging and quite false allegations that can only have been aimed at me under the protection of Parliament earlier this week.
While defeating the Bill was a prime objective, the other objective was always to bring about the introduction of a system of regulation for this industry that would benefit both industry and consumers based on a sensible set of rules reflecting the actual risk profile of natural health products.
With the Bill on hold, there would seem to be little chance at present of the Government getting behind the creation of a world leading system in NZ as we have been asking them to do for 10 years.
By putting this Bill the Government has left us all in limbo. The system we have needs review. Do you know for example that under current laws it is illegal for dietary supplements to make any therapeutic claims. So to say the your vitamin C product may assist the proper functioning of the immune system is breaking the law unless that product is licensed under the Medicines Act.
Those rules have not been enforced much previously and even the Ministry of Health has made numerous therapeutic claims for example the benefits of eating fruits and vegetables. For businesses though they continually run the risk of being prosecuted for carrying on business as usual and this issue needs to be addressed.
It seems we have a Government at the moment that only wants to listen to groups that agree with it. In our view "misinformation" has become the Government's favourite defence against anyone who dares to express a contrary view. Just to set the record straight on a few things remember that:
- Unlike Natural Products NZ, we have no self interest in this issue
- Our campaign is based solely on our concern about what this Bill would have meant for the consumers of New Zealand
- The NZ Health Trust has never had complaint laid against it in regards the accuracy of any of the information it produces.
While we would love to be able to report that this war had been won, it isn't and we must continue if we are to protect the health freedoms of NZ.
Kind Regards
Dave Sloan |
