(Updated 26th January 2030)
Here is my template for the thousands of natural health practitioners who have not been consulted about this Bill. This proposed legislation threatens their existence. My advice to you, whoever you are, if you object to this Bill, pull no punches: Tell them in no uncertain terms that this legislation is taking things too far and must be shelved!
Politicians and health bureaucrats have no place in the clinic, telling highly qualified and experienced health professionals what they can and can't do for their patients while threatening them with punitive fines and jail time if they don't comply!
Please read this article and the ones linked to it:
The closing date for making objections is 15th February, so ACT NOW!
Here is the link for putting in your objection, and it can be as simple as saying, "I object to this legislation". The most important thing is to get your objection in on time and encourage your professional contacts, friends and family to do the same. Numbers count!
Here is a website with some excellent templates that you can use to help write your objection:
Some ideas to include in your objection to this Bill:
This objection to the Therapeutic Products Bill is on behalf of the thousands of New Zealand natural health practitioners who have yet to be consulted about this legislation. Whoever wrote this Bill should have consulted us. We now fear for our livelihood and the survival of "natural health". You have dropped this legislation upon us when confidence in allopathic medicine is at an all-time low and when the need for investment in the basics of good health, including food as medicine, could not be more urgent.
The proposed therapeutics Bill is unnecessary. Is there reliable data that justifies the need for such legislation? For example: How many deaths and injuries have occurred during the last fifty years in New Zealand from taking a vitamin pill?
This legislation will kill small businesses and prevent Kiwi startups
While we understand the writers of this legislation claim to have consulted the natural health industry, this is disinformation: They have consulted only the big players, many overseas owned, some owned by Big Pharma, others with financial and other ties with pharma and biotech. They are the ones who stand to benefit from this legislation by eliminating their numerous but much smaller competitors while making the practice of natural health as a profession untenable.
Under this legislation, we assume a startup natural health product business must spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to get new products to market. Is this correct?
Failure to consult
In addition, they need to consult natural health practitioners adequately, which they still need to do. If there has been consultation with natural health practitioners, of which there are thousands, none of us knows this. So please tell us about the consultation process and who represented our interests. Whomever they might be, they did not consult us, even if they claim to represent us.
Just what is the problem this Bill proposes to fix that is so urgent? Indeed there are more important things to deal with, like poverty, homelessness, suicide, a health system in collapse, inflation, fuel insecurity, debt and pandemics.
The Bill is too long and too complex for busy people to make head or tail of it
We have some questions for the select committee to answer. So, here we go:
This legislation proposes a "Regulator", an ominous term, who will tell qualified and experienced health professionals what they can and can't say in public, or to a patient in the clinic, and he will make clinical decisions about what they can and can't dispense. Is that correct?
If a health professional makes a health claim, such as citrus peel may reduce cancer risk (A claim supported by peer-reviewed research, by the way), but approved not by the regulator, then might they be breaking the law?
Are they breaking the law if they advise a client to consume citrus peel as a complementary therapy to cancer treatment, and the regulator does not approve this?
Are they breaking the law if they dispense a dosage higher than that approved by the regulator, such as more than 30mg of zinc or more than 500mg of vitamin C per day, if those are the approved daily maximums?
If they import a nutritional product from overseas, such as a multimineral with extracts of animal origins, do they have to go through an approval process, and how long and at what cost will that be? One year or longer? $100,000 - more or less?
Therefore, what will be the cost of getting approval for a product with one ingredient and one with multiple elements and what is the timeline?
If they import a dozen products with differing ingredients, does each need approval by the regulator?
Are they breaking the law if they import and sell unapproved products or dispense them to patients?
If the ingredients of an approved product are changed or adjusted after approval, does the reformulated product need to go through the approval process again?
Do similar questions apply to the individual or small business in New Zealand that produces natural products with health claims, say, a herbal balm for sale at the farmer's market?
This Bill will be the death knell for small New Zealand businesses while benefitting large-scale companies with multi-million dollar turnovers. It threatens the viability of natural health professionals. Whether they like it or not, this legislation will push New Zealanders firmly into the allopathic camp for health care. Please reassure us that this assumption is wrong.
Conclusion:
There are far too many open-ended uncertainties in this Bill. Therefore it cannot be supported by thinking New Zealanders and most definitely not by anyone who values being able to decide how they manage their health, including the food they eat and the use of natural products as remedies. Accordingly, this Bill it must not be allowed to become law.
Invest, instead, in health:
If there was ever a time, it is to do the following:
Take GST off fresh, locally grown food.
Introduce a sugar tax.
Run national health-based education campaigns encouraging healthy eating habits, exercise and self-care.
If this Bill becomes law:
We pledge to actively campaign against every Member of Parliament who voted for it so they are replaced with people who understand how to consult and represent their constituents.
This pledge is our word, and we shall keep it, and we will not disappoint.
Thank you for putting this info together Gary. Submission is sent