Image: Honey bee collecting precious NZ Manuka Honey
Below is an email I received from a long time friend and former work colleague, Ernest:
"Please follow this link through to Gary Moller’s blog for an excellent short article on the Natural Health Products Bill which was sponsored by the Green Party: it is awaiting its Third Reading in Parliament, which makes it all but legislation. What a sell out by the Green Party of its roots and supposed green values – I have voted for them in the dim early days of MMP when there was a more hopeful vision to save the planet and before they had hustler’s on the street wanting your money, haha….or is that GreenPeace? In the public’s mind/my mind, probably the same DNA mixed up in the same pestle and mortar…..Maybe its because they’ve become Big Business too.
If you care about your freedom of choice to use alternatives to your health care (and indeed prevention of disease) rather than Big Pharma, Big Vitamin and Big Medicine then click on the link and find out which political parties support or are against this draconian but ironically neo-fascist bill:
I’ll leave it up to Gary (a friend of mine) from here, but do have a look around his blog and website, and testimonials of what he does as a health practitioner with his specialty of HTMA (Hair Tissue Mineral Analysis) and healthy ageing.
Also check out the frequently asked questions on the Bill on the Natural Health Alliance website. The Canadian version of this bill has wiped out 20,000 products off their store shelves and the EU and Australia have their versions of it as well. These were mostly the products of small to medium sized businesses which we all buy and love; and that will go for your rongoa, ayurveda and other traditional medicines as well, as well as other natural health practitioner supplements like systemic enzymes (http://systemicenzymes.net/) – the only winner is Big Pharma, Big Vitamin and Big Medicine.
Please be thoughtful on this issue – I’ve just recently had to sign up a document/contract with Manna Milk to become a Limited Partner with them to receive my order of raw milk, which I conveniently pick up at a local distribution point. This is from recent government bureaucratic bs to restrict and make it a pain to receive such deliveries, and infringe on our choice to buy raw cow’s milk if we want to get the full complement of its goodness and avoid the 90% depletion of nutrients you get from pasteurised milk and the even more harmful elements of homogenised milk – if you have to drink pasteurised milk, organic or not, then buy silver top whole cream milk. Believe me it’s not going to make you fat compared to trim milk etc – (everyone should know the new science by now: fat is not the bogeyman if it’s good fat and low fat will shorten your life because the good fats are the basic stuff your life giving hormones are made from). Homogenised is the worst milk you can drink…..Some may argue against raw milk but I’ve been drinking it for years, consider myself fit and healthy for age 62 and take no medications of any sort. Any past or historical problems with raw milk has now been overcome in NZ with better hygiene, animal health and modern refrigeration which overcome the reasons for pasteurisation in the first place.
It will be a sad day if this Natural Health Products Bill passes into Law. I’m not usually a stirrer or agitator but if this Bill becomes Law it will impinge greatly on the choices we have to take responsibility for our own health, ageing, well-being and prevention of disease.
Cheers"
Ernest
There are a number of pressing issues facing New Zealand, some of which are global as much as they are regional:
The threat to our very existence of climate change and environmental degradation.
The scourge of inequality, poverty and homelessness.
The growing power and influence of Big Business over our lives - in the context of this article - Big Pharma, Big Vitamin and Big Medicine.
There is currently legislation before Parliament called the Natural Health Products Bill. It is awaiting its Third Reading; in other words, it is all but legislation. It is a Draconian piece of legislation that has been quietly sneaked through Parliament.
This Bill, which is being stewarded through its legislative process by the Green Party of all parties, sets out to regulate the way that natural health products are made, marketed and dispensed in New Zealand. On the face of it, what it says it does, is very reasonable.
However, as they say, 'the Devil is in the detail'. And there is no shortage of Devil in this legislation.
This Green Party sponsored legislation literally hands over the natural health sector to Big Pharma, Big Vitamin and Big Medicine! The Greens are selling out many of their most ardent supporters! I don't think this has been their intention. I think they have been sucked in and duped by very cunning and slick lobbyists.
You can read all about this takeover by going to the website of the Natural Health Alliance which has been funded, built and serviced by deeply concerned health professionals like myself, and ordinary citizens, many of whom, I might add, were staunch supporters of the Green Party. Money that should be going to the Green Party is, instead, going towards the battle to prevent the takeover of the Natural Health Sector by Big Business.
Natural Health Alliance
The following political parties have stated publicly that they do not support the Natural Health Products Bill:
New Zealand First
The Maori Party
ACT
Labour, the Greens and National support this Bill.
The position of the Opportunities Party is unclear.
I will not be voting for the Green Party this time round.
The good news is that for National or Labour to form a Government, they will presumably have to do a coalition deal with one or more of NZ First, Maori Party and/or ACT. If this happens we can be quite confident that the Natural Health Products Bill will be canned and the whole issue revisited in a more open and reasonable manner.
If the Greens knew what was best for them, for this coming election, they would make an announcement this week that they no longer support the Natural Health Products Bill in its current form, and promise to carry out a review and rewrite, including a more comprehensive and inclusive consultation process than was previously the case.