| Dear Tim
NZHT Newsletter No 11 – February 2005
It’s time for an update about everything that has been happening in the fight to defeat the proposed Trans Tasman joint agency to regulate all therapeutic products and an urgent call for your support.http://www.nzhealthtrust.co.nz/poll.php
Just last week it was announced that the proposed agency is now not likely to start until July 2006 but maybe sooner. This means that the Government has been forced to delay this project by up to 12 months from original start date which was to have been July this year. This delay has come about due to the intense opposition to the proposal and should be seen by us all as a sign of the impact we have had.
The Government has simply not been able to muster the political support to have the necessary legislation passed so far and this has forced them to delay the project.
We also know that the Government is now focused on making a significant push aimed at getting support from other parties. To this end recently the Minister of Health arranged a private meeting in her offices with a small number of companies in the Natural Health sector. Notably this meeting included representatives from large companies like Healtheries, Nutralife and Alaron but excluded the NZ Health Trust or any of the companies that, like us, have been strong in opposing the joint agency. The purpose of this meeting, we understand, was to show representatives of the opposition parties that the Government had “industry backing” for the proposal. Why would large companies support the restrictive TGA proposal read more.
The New Zealand Health Trust became aware of the meeting several days before it was held and made it clear to the Minister and other MP’s that the meeting only involved those the Minister knew would support her and deliberately excluded anyone in opposition.
We made it clear that it did not reflect the views of the industry as a whole, or probably even a majority of the industry.
The meeting did make it clear to us however which companies are supporting the proposal and re-enforced how the Government will try and deceive other MP’s into thinking this proposal has the support of the NZ industry and consumers.
These recent events have once again highlighted just how important it is that we can show the MP’s the extent of the opposition. We are hearing from many of you of your views and the cards and email have been effective however we need to show the MP’s just how far the opposition goes to avoid your views getting ignored in preference to the views of those who are saying what the Minister wants to hear.
We would like all of you who support what we have been doing in opposing the Australian pharmaceutical regulators taking over our natural health industry, to go to this link http://www.nzhealthtrust.co.nz/poll.php
you will be able to complete a form that records your opposition to this proposal. We need a large number of supporters to prevent a few large companies dominating this issue.
We want to hear from you, as consumers and those involved in the industry, directly. We are aware that there are a limited few natural health industry groups who no longer represent the views of their members and are becoming dominated by these same large companies who want the merger with Australia to go ahead.
Please – it will only take a minute and will help us continue to fight this potentially devastating proposal with a greater coordinated and united front.
Kind Regards
Dave Sloan
NZ Health Trust
A: PO Box 34-057 Christchurch, New Zealand
P: +64 3 3519807
F: +64 3 3517993
E: info@nzht.co.nz
W: www.nzht.co.nz
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