Transtasman Therapeutics Products Authority takes another blow
Another blow to the Government’s plan for a costly and bureaucratic Transtasman Therapeutics Products Authority.
Before the last election the Health Select Committee unanimously recommended against the Authority. NZ First and United Future said they were against it.
Then after the election they did a dirty and pledged their support for it. That gave the Government 61 votes to 60 in favour. But since then Taito Phillip Field and now Alamein Gordon Copeland has said they will vote against it, so the vote is nor 59-62 against.
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May 22nd, 2007 at 11:44 am
Isn’t MMP great? This legislation will be hugely improved before there is enough support in parliament to pass it through
May 22nd, 2007 at 12:16 pm
As a small business owner I read huge amounts of material relating to this legislation with horror.
This issue and the way the government has disregarded industry concerns to get it this far swayed me against them like nothing else.
NZ has the potential to be a high quality producer of health-related products, but this legislation spells death to innovation – and death to transparent, NZ-based accountability.
Very glad that Field & Copeland are proving useful for something!
May 22nd, 2007 at 12:18 pm
As a small business owner I read huge amounts of material relating to this legislation with horror.
This issue and the way the government has disregarded industry concerns to get it this far swayed me against them like nothing else.
NZ has the potential to be a high quality producer of health-related products, but this legislation spells death to innovation – and death to transparent, NZ-based accountability.
Very glad that Field & Copeland are proving useful for something!
May 22nd, 2007 at 12:25 pm
The real issue though will be the longterm damage associated with this for National.
This is going to piss Australia off no end, and if you think when National is in government that the aussie government will be prepared to look at any future trans-tasman relationships – you can forget it!
Why on earth is National siding with the nutter Greens like crazy Sue Kedgeley? This is more important than giving a bloody nose to the government, NAtional need to look at the bigger picture and be aware of the damage they could do to the relationship between NZ and Australia if they work to defeat this.
The Nats have bought into the Greens spin, plain and simple.
May 22nd, 2007 at 12:32 pm
Sorry ABE but I laughed and laughed about long term damage with Australia. Our current government has annoyed them no end over the past 8 years.A bit late methinks.
Besides I dont think we should forget all the bullshit Oz orchardists have sent our way over fireblight in our apples. CER anyone?
May 22nd, 2007 at 1:06 pm
It was Annette King, not the National Party, who made promises that were outside her capabilities.
Christopher Pine might be pissed off that she couldn’t deliver, & will start buttering up National no matter what!
ABE – don’t you think it’s a bit creepy that this is so important to Australia? Why should it be so important to them?
National & ACT are against this legislation because it is BAD FOR BUSINESS.
The Greens have their own reasons for protesting against it, but really they have championed this one and as a business owner I thank them for that.
Captain Crab – I agree!!
May 22nd, 2007 at 1:10 pm
“Gordon Copeland has said they will vote against it,”
What does he mean by “they”? Doesn’t he mean “he”?
May 22nd, 2007 at 1:16 pm
ABE, the real issue is why would we want Australia dictating what we may or may not do? In OUR OWN country?
Nothing to do with Green or not – just our right to self-determination.
The business angle, when Labour constantly call for niche-market, innovative business is obvious. If one believes in ones right to choose ones own style of healthcare, the answer is obvious. if one believes that NZ is it’s own sovereign country, the answer is obvious. This bill, in its current form, MUST NOT BE PASSED.
Stand up all who believe in national and personal independance. The rest? Well, moving to a much more controlled nation is always an option.
May 22nd, 2007 at 1:28 pm
A different question is how many of these ‘health’ products are killing people. For example, there is now good evidence that Vitamins A and E (taken as supplements) increase mortality. How many other of these things are detrimentally affecting our health that we don’t know about.
Enjoy your multivitamins, suckers!
May 22nd, 2007 at 1:31 pm
All im saying is that this has huge implications for the future.
National are going to be the government next year, I just hope they realise what theyre doing.
As for why Australia are pushing for this – They are setting it up regardless, it matters little whether NZ is involved or not, this was just a chance for NZ to save some money basically.
BUT it is being used to test the water for future trans-tasman bodies. Thats why this is important – its just crazy that only Labour seems interested in progressing the relationship.
Also why do we want small businesses that sell pills from China that contain traces of arsenic in our market place anyway???
May 22nd, 2007 at 1:36 pm
ABE, I can’t believe that a massive, omnibus bill with unprecedented implications on our personal health, consumer choice, compliance costs & bureaucratic headaches for business, plus loss of national sovereignty is somehow, for you, not THE REAL ISSUE.
You are only concerned with a preposterous theory that an unrelated political party will somehow, through no fault of their own, get in the bad books with a big brother country next door.
How big is your thinking here????
May 22nd, 2007 at 1:40 pm
I think the businesses it is mainly a problem for are the ones that MANUFACTURE here, using good ingredients, locally sourced. Not imports.
And, El Sift – anything will damage or even kill one if used to excess. Anything from speed (the car kind, not drugs), to alcohol, to prescription drugs, natural therapies etc etc.
Don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater.
i had a recent nasty experience with some blood pressure tablets prescribed by my doctor. After the third adverse reaction, i discontinued their use and called him. He advised i had done the right thing by discontinuing them, alse they could have led to my DEATH. Good one, chemical drugs.
There is a place for all modalities, please grant people that right.
May 22nd, 2007 at 1:54 pm
That’s right – we need to allow people to be ripped off by hucksters selling “natural” and “alternative” products which don’t have to have tests done for efficacy and side effects.
May 22nd, 2007 at 2:00 pm
No huckster selling natural face lifts could make Klark and Bradford look pretty .
May 22nd, 2007 at 2:01 pm
were chemicals invented before plants? And given to humans?
Anyway, we’re constantly ripped off by Labour and an awful lot of us didn’t vote for them. It’s still a basic right of human choice.
If you don’t agree with choice, live somewhere the lack of it exists, then you’ll be well suited. Even if natural health is a rip-off (I’m not convinced it is), its OUR CHOICE.Just as someone, somewhere, chose Helen and her mobsters to govern this fine land of ours.The rest of us have to live with their choice, no choice, at least people who choose natural health don’t make everyone else choose it as well.
May 22nd, 2007 at 2:02 pm
We need to know the products are true to label and that they are safe, at the recommended level of consumption, to take.
Aside from that it’s up to people to make their own decisions.
May 22nd, 2007 at 2:25 pm
“it matters little whether NZ is involved or not” to Australia – thanks ABE.
But… how would it save NZ money to be part of a tran-tasman outfit? Save us money as opposed to what?
Beth is correct in her concerns that local producers and manufacturers will be especially penalised under the legislation. Audits and manufacturing licenses are projected to be extremely expensive.
New Zealand producers of, say, lavender oil for example, will realise they are looking down the barrel of enormous cost (and associated compliance requirements) and will simply stop making any on their farm / lifestyle block.
Why bother if it means paying tens of thousands of dollars annually for such a privelege? Plus loads of paperwork for some paper shufflers to tick off? Of course, New Zealand consumers and industries will definitely miss out as a result.
Luckily olive oil and avocado oil are foods so are exempt from this legislation, because they are good for you as well!!
Our lavender essential oil is probably some of the best in the world – but unfortunately it is good for the human organism (respiratory system, for example) so you will be slammed for making it from now on! Same with thyme essential oil, which has very strong antimicrobial properties and grows so fabulously around Central Otago… what a waste. As for manuka – don’t get me started!
We’ll have to import products based on these plants from producers in other countries instead, & just bite the bullet on the higher “therapeutic” product tax.
Note: If you are dubious about the chemical effect of aromatic plants, feel free to a simple petri dish test yourself, and enjoy the results.
The legislation is a disincentive to promote the therapeutic properties of products. Doing this would catch the producer and supplier in a complicated and draconian web of compliance cost & bureaucracy.
What an irony!!
May 22nd, 2007 at 4:10 pm
Beth I’M with you I choose to take natural products and vitamins. Linda the various innoculations and drugs contain more harmful substances than any natural preparations. Abe, don’t worry National may strengthen our relationship with Aussie through support on Defence Issues instead of giving comfort to our joint enemies.Hisself phalidomide, Lipitor, and other drugs have caused more harm than natural substances ever will…You stick with your drugs produced by Smith Kline Glaxo and other disreputable rogues but don’t try and dictate to those of us who choose Health Products.
May 22nd, 2007 at 6:08 pm
Again the Greens have taken the lead on opposing this. Personally I think Labour should wake up and ah….smell the lavender on this one.
May 22nd, 2007 at 6:24 pm
baxter: Beth I’M with you I choose to take natural products and vitamins. Linda the various innoculations and drugs contain more harmful substances than any natural preparations.
Many natural substances are quite deadly. 1080 for example, or bracken ferns which are very very carcinogenic.
May 22nd, 2007 at 10:15 pm
This is a global phenomena designed to protect the profits of big pharma.
Google CODEX ALIMENTARIS.
Do ya think it’s just a big coincidence the Aussies are trying to peddle it over here?
The fact Annette King has fallen for something that benefits some of the largest companies in the world, while imposing massive detriment on millions if not billions, shows just how incompetent she really is.
But we all knew that anyway, right?
May 23rd, 2007 at 9:08 am
I agree reid I don’t think any other conclusions can be drawn here!
Further down the track I put a huge red flag on cosmetic products.
In Europe the Cosmetics Regulator has recently in effect banned the use of natural citrus fruit extracts in perfumery.
Yes you heard right.
Somehow, based on flimsy and far fetched evidence that flies in the face of common sense and human historical use of natural products, it has been deemed that the smell of real oranges is bad for your health.
Enter: pharmaceuticals and synthetic fragrance producers.
They are about to OWN this industry.
Bye bye real perfume! Bye bye European citrus farmers and producers! http://www.cropwatch.org/nlet6.htm
Gone by lunchtime.
ABE you might think there are “nutter”s among the Greens but who else in parliament would actually keep an eye on these types of issues, before they are slid past us without any fanfare?
May 23rd, 2007 at 9:10 am
I agree reid I don’t think any other conclusions can be drawn here!
Further down the track I put a huge red flag on cosmetic products.
In Europe the Cosmetics Regulator has recently in effect banned the use of natural citrus fruit extracts in perfumery.
Yes you heard right.
Somehow, based on flimsy and far fetched evidence that flies in the face of common sense and human historical use of natural products, it has been deemed that the smell of real oranges is bad for your health.
Enter: pharmaceuticals and synthetic fragrance producers.
They are about to OWN this industry.
Bye bye real perfume! Bye bye European citrus farmers and producers! http://www.cropwatch.org/nlet6.htm
Gone by lunchtime.
ABE you might think there are “nutter”s among the Greens but who else in parliament would actually keep an eye on these types of issues, before they are slid past us without any fanfare?
May 23rd, 2007 at 9:12 am
I agree reid I don’t think any other conclusions can be drawn here!
Further down the track I put a huge red flag on cosmetic products.
In Europe the Cosmetics Regulator has recently in effect banned the use of natural citrus fruit extracts in perfumery.
Yes you heard right.
Somehow, based on flimsy and far fetched evidence that flies in the face of common sense and human historical use of natural products, it has been deemed that the smell of real oranges is bad for your health.
Enter: pharmaceuticals and synthetic fragrance producers.
They are about to OWN this industry.
Bye bye real perfume! Bye bye European citrus farmers and producers! http://www.cropwatch.org/nlet6.htm
Gone by lunchtime.
ABE you might think there are “nutter”s among the Greens but who else in parliament would actually keep an eye on these types of issues, before they are slid past us without any fanfare?
May 23rd, 2007 at 9:14 am
I agree reid I don’t think any other conclusions can be drawn here!
Further down the track I put a huge red flag on cosmetic products.
In Europe the Cosmetics Regulator has recently in effect banned the use of natural citrus fruit extracts in perfumery.
Yes you heard right.
Somehow, based on flimsy and far fetched evidence that flies in the face of common sense and human historical use of natural products, it has been deemed that the smell of real oranges is bad for your health.
Enter: pharmaceuticals and synthetic fragrance producers.
They are about to OWN this industry.
Bye bye real perfume! Bye bye European citrus farmers and producers! http://www.cropwatch.org/nlet6.htm
Gone by lunchtime.
ABE you might think there are “nutter”s among the Greens but who else in parliament would actually keep an eye on these types of issues, before they are slid past us without any fanfare?
May 23rd, 2007 at 2:30 pm
I have a daughter who was very ill for many years. Under her specialist and her doctors care she only became more ill and in fact, at the age of 16, when she was petty much at deaths door, her doctor, after rubbishing any natrual product I had tried, threw his arms up in the air and said he had no idea what else to do for her.
Now heres where it gets interesting. We then took her to a doctor who also practiced homeopathy. He tested her, and although her doctor had diagnosed her correctly, he was treating her incorrectly. To cut a long story short, this new doctor prescribed her with homeopathic medicine, with very strict instructions and routine. It took around 6 weeks for our daughter who had been ill for around 6 years to begin to get better. Six months later she was completely well and has not been sick since. So to all you synics out there – our modern day medicine very often results in loss of life but we tend to make excuses for this one and blame it on other things. My daughter is alive and well today because of natual remedy and I am aware of many others that have been saved because of natural medication. If this bill goes through many will not have the opportunities my daughter had. By the way she had atrocious side effects from all the medicine her first doctor and specialist gave her and none what so ever from the natural medication. They each have their place and the choice should always be there.
May 23rd, 2007 at 2:33 pm
I have a daughter who was very ill for many years. Under her specialist and her doctors care she only became more ill and in fact, at the age of 16, when she was petty much at deaths door, her doctor, after rubbishing any natrual product I had tried, threw his arms up in the air and said he had no idea what else to do for her.
Now heres where it gets interesting. We then took her to a doctor who also practiced homeopathy. He tested her, and although her doctor had diagnosed her correctly, he was treating her incorrectly. To cut a long story short, this new doctor prescribed her with homeopathic medicine, with very strict instructions and routine. It took around 6 weeks for our daughter who had been ill for around 6 years to begin to get better. Six months later she was completely well and has not been sick since. So to all you synics out there – our modern day medicine very often results in loss of life but we tend to make excuses for this one and blame it on other things. My daughter is alive and well today because of natual remedy and I am aware of many others that have been saved because of natural medication. If this bill goes through many will not have the opportunities my daughter had. By the way she had atrocious side effects from all the medicine her first doctor and specialist gave her and none what so ever from the natural medication. They each have their place and the choice should always be there.
May 23rd, 2007 at 2:48 pm
I have a daughter who was very ill for many years. Under her specialist and her doctors care she only became more ill and in fact, at the age of 16, when she was petty much at deaths door, her doctor, after rubbishing any natrual product I had tried, threw his arms up in the air and said he had no idea what else to do for her.
Now heres where it gets interesting. We then took her to a doctor who also practiced homeopathy. He tested her, and although her doctor had diagnosed her correctly, he was treating her incorrectly. To cut a long story short, this new doctor prescribed her with homeopathic medicine, with very strict instructions and routine. It took around 6 weeks for our daughter who had been ill for around 6 years to begin to get better. Six months later she was completely well and has not been sick since. So to all you synics out there – our modern day medicine very often results in loss of life but we tend to make excuses for this one and blame it on other things. My daughter is alive and well today because of natual remedy and I am aware of many others that have been saved because of natural medication. If this bill goes through many will not have the opportunities my daughter had. By the way she had atrocious side effects from all the medicine her first doctor and specialist gave her and none what so ever from the natural medication. They each have their place and the choice should always be there.
May 23rd, 2007 at 11:05 pm
This damning bill under the guise of consumer “safety” is nothing more than legislation to protect Drug Co profits and destroy their main competitor of consumer dollars, the Natural Health Industry. CODEX ALIMENTARIUS, a global “harmonisation” directive started by Multinational Corporations to control our health choices and keep us sicker to be totally reliant on their medicines, pesticides, seeds, and foods for survival.
OUR “board” will be run by 93% Australians and 7% Kiwis, hardly 50/50 what Annette King tells us.
Almost a third of the over 400 page bill contained policing, imprisonment, confiscation, reparation and fines laws.
Annette King tells us it will be better for us to be told what to do from Australia but whats happened in Australia?
In Australia The TGAs rules has destroyed the industry with 15% increases per year of compliance costs which has pushed sources off shore. Only Drug Company sourced Synthetic Vitamins end up available.
Their health status in the OECD is far worse than NZs.
Introduction of new inovative products has stopped due to the massive compliance costs. Only Huge Multi National Drugs Cos can afford the Costs.
The Agency has the right to impose $550,000 fines on companies at will. Penalties can range up to $5.5 million at a time.
Drug Cos like Glaxo lie about Ribena and get a slap on the hand. Again others like Merck sell Vioxx which kills 100,000 American consumers has the FDA REAPPROVE its usage with no reprocussions. Or Bayer KNOWINGLY selling Formaraid infected with HIV Virus killing kids with AIDS and getting let off with the help of the FDA.
But PAN Pharma who distributed 70% of Aussies supplements was targetted in a proven Witchunt to eliminate them from the market from an issue with 1 manufacture error of a DRUG. Thousands lost their jobs and many kiwis lost money here when they had all supplements destroyed and Pan shut down, this was the beginning of this so called TGA Board.
~It is predicted up to 95,000 Kiwis will lose their jobs under this bill.
~Remaining supplement rules dictate ultra low doses basically rendering them useless.
~In Canada they were sold the SAME story, now they have had 27,000 supplements eliminated and thousands are protesting because of the ill effects to their health.
~The US is currently trying again to introduce a similar bill under this time “claims” violations.
~In European countries already under a similar “safety bill” black markets have emerged. People have been arrested for selling normal dosage Vit C and growing herbs at home.
This Bill is dangerous, and must be stopped. Is is so blatantly obvious that there is a smear campaign against natural health, eg stating Omega 3s are useless, yet most people didn’t know the results on TV were skewered. Or comparing apples to be no healthier to a can of coke, or the hand picked studies on dangers of vit a out of countless positive studies.
Big bucks from Pharma provide the dosh for the smearing and the uninformed public lap it up. Yet it is OK for Drug Cos to kill us in the millions and get let off every time. Iotragenic deaths kill 990000 americans yearly. Death rates have increased 5 times in the last 4 years. 4 times as many die from Iotragenic deaths than road deaths in NZ, you just dont have the figures advertised how many stuffups there is. Its hidden under “accidents”.
Lets get real, people are turning in droves back to Natural supplements for health because drugs KILL, have killed, dissabled, adverse reactions, maimed or officials have been caught out lieing to sell the drugs. Drugs all go through an LD50 rating to prove they kill. And to say supplements should be control like them is an insane joke.
We get sicker, they sell more drugs, simple.
Remember this NO drugs have cured any disease, only natural vitamins from plants. Remember scurvy. Remember Bird flu, people die from RAPID Scurvy. Whats the cure for scurvy? whats a cheap natural cure for Bird Flu?. Tamiflu NO!
The body does the work always. Give the body the tools it was created to survive on and it will recover.
Get informed, for your kids sake.
http://www.nzhealthtrust.co.nz/must_read.html
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5266884912495233634
May 24th, 2007 at 3:10 pm
Your blog post comparing Gordon Copeland to Alamein Kopu is a vile slur upon the character and integrity of this man.
In an era when politicians routinely receive very low scores for trustworthiness and moral repute, this man’s courage to stand for his convictions is a breath of fresh air.
I challenge anyone in the National Party to say why they ignored the view of up to 80% of voters in siding with Helen Clark on the Child Discipline Bill, when everyone knows that Copeland has called this correctly, in pointing out that the “amendment” is a mere whitewash, since it got Labour off the hook in return for nothing.
May 24th, 2007 at 3:23 pm
Dear “truth alert”
Homeopathic remedies are basically water and nothing else, why not give your daughter water and save yourself the cost of the homeopathic remedies and doctors fees and the like.
The way in which drugs work is well known as it is based on scientific research.
Natural remedies kill people but we don’t hear that. Still, I remember the young boy Liam (Williams?) who was given the natural remedies, then when it was clear they were not going to work he was given the chemotherapy his specialists had recommended all along, but by then he had no hope.
May 24th, 2007 at 3:32 pm
Dear “truth alert”
Homeopathic remedies are basically water and nothing else, why not give your daughter water and save yourself the cost of the homeopathic remedies and doctors fees and the like.
The way in which drugs work is well known as it is based on scientific research.
Natural remedies kill people but we don’t hear that. Still, I remember the young boy Liam (Williams?) who was given the natural remedies, then when it was clear they were not going to work he was given the chemotherapy his specialists had recommended all along, but by then he had no hope.
May 24th, 2007 at 4:04 pm
wow your head is entrenched in the sand isn’t it Patrick Dunford.
You don’t even know what you mean by “natural remedies”, do you?
It’s very easy to scientifically prove the efficacy of plant medicine, but I suppose you don’t have access to a simple laboratory, or exert your own curiosity very much, so you just swallow the well-oiled stories you are told about other people’s “scientific research”.
Dear oh dear oh dear oh dear.
By the way, Section 59 was passed in parliament by a significant majority whether you like it or not – so you can go away and lick your wounds.
And Copeland forgot to turn up for the vote!
Guess he forgot to take his gingko biloba that morning.
May 25th, 2007 at 10:14 am
Patrick, people die of natural remedies aye, show us the proof then. Real proof you can get DIRECTLY from the NZ Coroner who knows better than you, and he has said publicly NONE have died. Compare that to medicines, ask the doctors in the US why under a million die every year of adverse reactions or stuffups and little gets done. This bill is supposed to be about safety for consumers than tell us why Merck can get away with killing over 100,000 citizens selling VIOXX KNOWING that it would cause heart attacks. Or how about Gardicil, currently being pushed in NZ, did anyone care about the Adverse reactions suffered by many Aussie schoolgirls after they recieved the vaccines, and they said there was parylisation DUE TO BEING AFRAID OF NEEDLES. This garbage has to stop and the lies exposed because there is a massive campaign funded by the drug cos to eliminate good foods to GM and terminator tech foods, to eliminate natural supplements and plants to sell synthetic versions which have been PROVEN to cause problems.
We eat PLANTS, not rocks. We eat meat, do we need to be pumped up with huge amounts of growth hormones and estrogens, ask yourselves men, why are males getting breast cancer?
Where do you think drugs get their origination from? plants anf foods. Scientist well know the total benefits of many foods and extracts to cure and because they cannot patent it, copy it.
If it wasn’t for Vit C in limes, would sailors have survives traveling accross oceans to populate other countries, instead to die of scurvey.
Patrick open your mind and stop listening to the Drug Co garbage. Its that guilibility that makes them multi billionares, and exempt from the deaths of millions of whom their drugs didn’t work on.
May 25th, 2007 at 11:57 am
Despite myself, I have to jump on this bandwagon, because I’ve just read about that poor woman in the United Kingdom who was convicted of murdering her baby son.
In actual fact, the baby died after complications from a vaccination. Don’t get me wrong, I’m PRO VACCINATION. The evil lies in a group of doctors deliberately covering this up as the possible cause of death; it was made inadmissable evidence for the jury.
This meant that the only explanation remaining was murder by asphyxiation by the mother.
On release from prison, 42 year old barrister Sally Clark died of a broken heart.
Another thing I find intriguing is deaths directly attributed to Tamiflu – which has already made millions for its makers, and yet is for a disease that has not even eventuated yet.
Is this a “first” in world history?
May 25th, 2007 at 1:07 pm
Hey, i’m really glad to see this thread is continuing. It’s what we need, to have freedom of choice allowed.
Quick case history: My 9 month old son (14 years ago!) reacted adversely to almost everything i ate – i.e. I was breast feeding and he threw up, constantly. He screamed a lot, as if he were hungry and a long sleep, day or night, was 1.5 hrs. Eventually, we took him to a homeopath, who tested him, then treated him for a digestive and endocrine system that was completely out of whack. Three nights later he slept for 5 hours (I didn’t, checking on him every hour). From that moment on he never looked back, is not allergic to anything, eats everything. Between him and my 16 yr old, they have been to the doctors a total (combined) of 9 times IN THEIR LIVES. For things like a fall off a BMX bike, an ingrowing toenail etc.
The younger one had one of those fits toddlers have, from overheating, on his 2nd birthday. He never had another, because out came the Ferrum Phosphate cell salts every time he even looked like getting a temperature.
Now you can’t tell me, Patrick Dunford, that 9 month old babies ‘believe’ they will be cured and also, if you had any knowledge of anything, you’d know that homeopathic remedies don’t all come in the same format.
Did God invent chemical medicines? i think not, I think he would abhor them, as he did the money men in the temples!!!!Natural remedies use the natural gifts God has given the world. What could be more fitting?