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Greetings to all MyHealth / NZHT newsletter subscribers.

NZ Health Trust Newsletter No 7 – 24 October 2004

Greetings once again Another brief update to let you know about the progress we have been making in the fight to keep New Zealand Natural Health Products safe from the ravages of the Australian TGA.

In the last newsletter we wrote about the threat that the National Party may be thinking of supporting the TGA proposal.  [ Thanks to everyone who took the time to contact National party MP's and let them know your views. ]

We now know that the emails and postcards we have been encouraging you to send have had an ENORMOUS affect on the MP's and played a large part in National recently assuring us that they still had no intention of supporting a treaty that did not comply with the recommendations of the select committee.  This is fine as we know that the Treaty Labour signed and the Select Committee reports are mutually exclusive.

But, WE CANNOT REST - this is politics and in politics deals are always being done .  We know the Labour is doing all they can behind the scenes to have one of the parties supporting us change their position and provide the crucial extra few votes Labour needs and so far does not have.

No legislation has been introduced into Parliament yet and only Labour will know when they plan to do this.  However, it has been consistently claimed by the TGA and MedSafe that this agency will be in operation by 1 st July 2005.  If they are to stick to this timetable the legislation will have to be introduced by early next year.

We must be loud and we cannot let up.  Please keep asking your friends and colleagues to join our mailing list and to contact their MP's and if you see our postcards, sign them and send them off.  If you have some to distribute please do what you can to get them where supporters of natural products will see them.  The NZHT is committed to continuing to do whatever is necessary until the legislation is defeated.