A Post-Election Message from the Natural Health Alliance

I'm sharing this message on behalf of the Natural Health Alliance to explain why we endorsed NZ First. Our support for NZ First remains strong, and there's still a lot of work ahead of us.

This message in a glance:

The message mainly discusses the political landscape and the Natural Health Alliance's concerns regarding the Therapeutic Products Act in New Zealand.

• The general election took place two weeks ago in New Zealand, and there's no new government formed yet. It's expected to be a National Party and ACT Party coalition, possibly with New Zealand First.

• The Natural Health Alliance is concerned about the Therapeutic Products Act, passed by the previous Labour-Green coalition government. They believe this act threatens the natural health products industry by increasing regulations, imposing fines for breaches, and creating additional bureaucracy in Wellington.

• The Natural Health Alliance had previously received assurance from New Zealand First that they would repeal the Therapeutic Products Act if they returned to Parliament and government.

• The Alliance actively supported New Zealand First in the election, including running advertisements in the New Zealand Herald.

• The Alliance is grateful for the support of its members and is developing a long-term strategy to protect the natural health products industry in New Zealand.
  

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Dear concerned health consumer,

It has been two weeks since the general election took place and we are yet to see the formation of the new government. That government will be a National Party and ACT Party coalition, possibly with the inclusion of New Zealand First.

We will not know the final outcome until this coming Friday 3 November when the special votes are to be announced. Until then, our politicians are lying low and taking a break after weeks of campaigning.

It has always been the Natural Health Alliance’s goal to ensure that the regulations covering our industry are based on a common-sense approach under-pinning a benign trading environment. The current laws under the Food Act and regulations have served our industry well for many years and we firmly believe should continue as the regulatory regime.

As we have communicated with you in recent months, the Therapeutic Products Act, passed in July this year under Parliamentary urgency by the Labour-Green coalition government, creates a major threat to our industry. The Therapeutic Products Act is the result of successful lobbying by Big Pharma, overseas corporate interests, and a complicit ‘health’ bureaucracy to bring natural health products under the same regime as pharmaceuticals.

It will increase enormously the amount of regulation that our industry will have to deal with, bring severe fines for breaches (including prison sentences to health practitioners in breach of the Act) and see industry levies imposed on each manufactured health product that could cost our industry millions of dollars in annual levies. Furthermore, the Ministry of Health says it will need to create a new Wellington-based bureaucracy up to three times the size of Medsafe to administer the Acts provisions, estimating another 400 to 500 government employees with offices around the country. This is an enormous over-reach by the bureaucracy.

In May this year, prior to the Act being passed, we were given a strong assurance that New Zealand First would repeal the Therapeutic Products Act if they made it back into Parliament, and government.

The party leader, Rt Hon Winston Peters, spoke at our public meeting in Wellington against the then proposed legislation and assured us he would repeal the Act. In private communication to our political team and in public interviews he repeated that assurance: the Therapeutic Products Act would not be tinkered with or amended – it would be thrown out and we would revert back to how our industry has been regulated over the last four or five decades.

This stand was highly encouraging to us and we therefore threw our support behind New Zealand First, helping the party return to Parliament and government. This was a logical and rational plan for the good of our industry, and we took a very active role in promoting the party during the election campaign. We bought a series of full-page advertisements in the New Zealand Herald from mid-August right up until election day urging people to ‘party vote’ New Zealand First.

While the election saw the return of New Zealand First to Parliament, we are yet to see if the party is able to achieve policy goals. The repeal of the Act is high on the list of priorities for the party. New Zealand First stood up for the natural health products industry in 2007 and in 2017 by stopping similar legislation, and we have been reassured the party will deliver the same result if they can.

We are extremely grateful for the support we received from our members to help with our election efforts. Many of you contributed generously to our campaign costs, and further ensured that a clear message was communicated to as many people as possible. We have no doubt our industry’s efforts played a large role in bringing New Zealand First’s eight MPs into Parliament. We now have to wait and see if some of those MPs become government ministers.

The Natural Health Alliance needs you more than ever for us to continue our work. We are developing a long-term strategy that will help bring certainty and reassurance to our members, to ensure that natural health products can continue to be manufactured and supplied to all New Zealanders, without increasing costs or the fear of health practitioners being jailed. We look forward to communicating our plans to you in the coming months.

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Gary:

I believe that NZ First poses a threat to the Establishment, which has, in my view, caused considerable harm to our country. I'm concerned about the misuse of government funds that I believe undermine free speech and democracy, and these are funded by us, the taxpayers of this beautiful country. I'd like to caution against getting swayed by propaganda aimed at discrediting Winston and NZ First.