NEWSFLASH:
A new petition has been set up to oppose the Natural Health Products bill. For more information and a link to the petition please click HERE.
Natural Health Products Bill: Important Update
April 30, 2016
Regular readers of this website will know that the Natural Health and Supplementary Products bill (which was recently re-named the Natural Health Products bill) has been causing significant concern in organisations devoted to protecting health freedom in NZ, including the NZ Health Trust and the Health Freedom NZ Trust.
As we reported recently, a legal opinion about various aspects of the bill has been obtained. You can read more about this HERE.
The Supplementary Order Paper (or SOP) which is the latest version of the bill may be read by accessing the April 4th update from the Health Freedom NZ Trust HERE.
The Natural Health Products bill and has been through two readings and its third (and final)reading could be coming up very soon.
If you would like to write to MPs, as the Health Freedom NZ Trust has recommended, a key message to include in your letter or email is that you would like the current Natural Health Products bill scrapped and replaced with the original model bill developed by David Sloan and the NZ Health Trust. This model bill had wide industry* and consumer support.
Information (including email addresses) to help you write to MPs. may be found HERE.
Thank you.
If you think the health freedom issue is important, please share this link, thank you.
Updates on the health freedom issue are also shared through our new Facebook page at the link below:
https://www.facebook.com/The-NZ-Journal-of-Natural-Medicine-1556883684629639/
*There is an industry group that supports the Natural Health Products bill as it currently stands (its press release may be read HERE), however many small businesses are very worried about the potential impact of the regulation on their businesses. Unlike the industry group which has publicly stated its support for the bill, the businesses that oppose the bill are not vocal about their concerns.
It would be fair to say that larger, well-established natural health products companies are more likely to favour the current Natural Health Products bill as it stands because the bill would confer a competitive advantage to to companies that are already in the industry and would make it harder for new companies to enter the NZ market place. Larger companies could also gain more market share if smaller companies in the natural health industry were forced out due to inability to meet new compliance costs.