Vitamin Consumers World Wide- Support New Zealand Struggle

[Guest guest]

Comments?

Misty L. Trepke

http://www..com

 

Vitamin Consumers World Wide Must Be Aware of Ongoing New

Zealand Struggle to Throw Off Yoke of Pharma Oppression

 

 

12 May 2004 17:51:09 -0000

" IAHF.COM "

Vitamin Consumers World Wide Must Be Aware of Ongoing New

Zealand Struggle to Throw Off Yoke of Pharma Oppression

 

IAHF Webmaster: Whats New, Asia, What to Do, All Countries, Codex

 

IAHF List: See REMINDERS below re health freedom radio shows Tonight

and Tomorrow, (shows will be archived) and please forward this

widely, encouraging more people to sign on to the IAHF list at

http://www.iahf.com We're closing in on 2,000 rs as

awareness of the awful slow motion train wreck that we're struggling

to stop ensues.

 

Regardless of where you live in the world, the New Zealand situation

discussed below is highly illustrative of what all of us are up

against as the New World Order attempts to crush the sovereign law

of ALL nations and to strip us of access to immune boosting

supplements.This is a planned GENOCIDE agenda, seen in microcosm in

New Zealand RIGHT NOW!!

 

Just as New Zealand is threatened with the destruction of its very

liberal food based vitamin laws by powerful neighbor Australia, so

is the whole PLANET threatened by what is happening in the EU and at

CODEX. See Josef Hasslbergers excellent article below which contains

an update from Sue Kedgely, member of the New Zealand Party who is

spearheading an ongoing New Zealand health freedom battle that is by

no means over.As Josef's article contains hypertext links that did

not copy into this message, I incourage you to view his article at

the link provided.

 

REMINDERS: Robin Falkov, L.Ac from the IAHF Speakers Bureau will be

on Coast to Coast AM With George Noory tonight (May 12) from 10PM- 1

AM Pacific Time; 11 AM- 2 AM Mountain Time, Midnight- 3 AM Central

Time, 1 AM-4 AM Eastern time; 6AM- 9AM UK Time, 7AM-10AM European

time.

 

This call in Program is web based http://www.coasttocoastam.com

The show will be archived.

 

Robin, a licensed acupuncturist will address the extreme GLOBAL

threat posed by the EU Food Supplement Directive and will also

discuss alternative medicine in a broad sense.

 

John Hammell will be on " Update on Health " with host Pieter Taams,

MD, ND on Thursday May 13th from 5PM-6PM Pacific Time, 6-7 Mountain,

7-8 Central, 8-9 Eastern, 1-2AM UK, 2-3 AM Europe Program is web

based http://www.talknetradio.com Program will be archived at

http://www.naturopathic-retreat.com/radio-show-archive.htm John will

provide an in depth discussion of the global importance of the ANH

lawsuit to overturn the EU Food Supplement Directive placing it in

the Context of the larger Codex vitamin issue.

 

 

http://www.newmediaexplorer.org/sepp/2004/05/10/new_zealand_supplemen

ts_to_be_medicines.htm

 

New Zealand: Supplements to be 'Medicines'

 

Legislation

 

For Europeans and Americans, New Zealand and Australia seem so far

away we don't usually think that what happens " down under " is going

to affect us in any way. Better think twice. What is happening there

does have relevance to us. In fact we are facing attempts by the

European Union and by the FDA to " regulate " supplements that are not

dissimilar to what is happening on the other side of the world.

 

Clearly, people taking care of their own health with non-medicinal

nutritious products are anathema to the medical/pharmaceutical

juggernaut that is controlling government health authorities and is

running roughshod over our health and well being. Their global war

against natural medicine is in full swing, just like the global war

against " terror " , which is leading us right into a future UN-

controlled dictatorship. We even have our own 911 equivalent - the

recall and immediate destruction of more than a thousand innocent

natural products, operated last April by the Australian Therapeutic

Goods Administration.

 

The plan is to now form a joint Australian/New Zealand Agency for

the control of Medicines (TGA), which is expected to end many of the

freedoms New Zealanders have traditionally enjoyed when it comes to

taking care of their own health using natural health products. The

agency is to be modeled after the existing Australian TGA, sadly

famous for its unprecedented natural products recall, which

Australian industry charges was a hatchet job. Not one of the

products recalled and destroyed immediately has been shown to be

harmful in any way.

 

New Zealand member of Parliament Sue Kedgley of the Aotearoa Green

Party is actively opposing the planned Australian takeover of her

country's health system. Her May 2004 newsletter charges that the

takeover could lead to the demise of much of New Zealand's natural

products industry, not to speak of diminished freedom for New

Zealand consumers of natural health products, which in the future

are to be classified as medicines.

 

Sue Kedgley

Wednesday, May 05, 2004

Complementary Health Newsletter - No. 1 for 2004

 

 

Welcome to the first 2004 edition of my Complementary Health

Newsletter.

 

There is a lot to report on since my last newsletter. The saga of

the government's attempt to hand over control of our dietary

supplements industry to an Australian-based regulator goes on, and

has reached a critical phase, so I will bring you up to date on the

latest developments on this and other issues. It is vital that

ordinary New Zealanders who care about these issues let the

government know what they think of its handling of these issues, so

please feel free to forward this newsletter to anyone who might be

interested.

 

In this edition:

- Update: Govt. tries to give Australian agency control of NZ

supplement industry

- Australians Seek Tighter Controls on Dietary Supplements

- Health Practitioners Competency Bill

- Pan Pharmaceutical Recall

 

 

Update: Govt. tries to give Australian agency control of NZ

supplement industry

 

As you will know the Health Select Committee inquiry into dietary

supplements (which was triggered by the Green Party's 30,000 strong

petition to the Committee) recommended that New Zealand should not

regulate our dietary supplements industry through an expanded

Australian based Therapeutic Goods Administration (TTTGA).

 

Instead, the Committee recommended unanimously that we strengthen

New Zealand's own regulatory system and pursue Mutual Recognition

rather than a joint agency with Australia.

 

A few days before our report was to be released, the government

signed a treaty with Australia committing New Zealand to regulating

dietary supplements through an expanded Australian TGA - ignoring

the recommendations of the yearlong inquiry and the overwhelming

majority of submitters to the Inquiry.

 

This was particularly galling given that all four of Labour's MPs on

the Health Sect committee had supported the committee's

recommendation.

 

MPs from National, Greens, New Zealand First, Act and United Future

all held a joint press conference condemning the government's

actions.

 

Fortunately, however, implementing legislation has to be adopted by

Parliament before the treaty that the government has signed can come

into force. Hopefully the government will find that it does not have

the numbers in Parliament to pass the implementing legislation -

which would be highly embarrassing for the government.

 

At this stage all parties other than Labour and the Progressives

have indicated they will not support implementing legislation to

regulate of dietary supplements through the TTTGA.

 

Despite this, the government is charging ahead as if it had the

numbers to pass legislation implementing the treaty it has signed.

The treaty has been sent to the Health Select committee for

consideration‚ and legislation implementing the treaty is expected

to be introduced into Parliament in the next few months.

 

Parliament does not have the power to amend treaties between

governments, but the Health Select Committee can recommend to

government that it not ratify the treaty, as it relates to dietary

supplements and hopefully that is what the committee will do.

 

During hearings in the Health Select committee on the treaty and the

proposed new joint agency, all of the concerns and fears that the

industry and consumers have raised over the past few years have been

confirmed.

 

As part of the treaty examination process, the government has had to

conduct a National Interest Analysis of the proposal, and has

finally made public its Regulatory Impact Statement of the likely

impact joining the TTTGA will have on New Zealand businesses and

consumers.

 

These documents confirm that regulating our dietary supplements

industry through the TTTGA will lead to significant increases in

compliance costs for manufacturers and distributors of complementary

medicines, especially smaller, New Zealand based companies: higher

prices for consumers and some brands being taken off the market,

leading to decreased consumer choice.

 

 

They confirm that all dietary supplements will be classified and

regulated under the same system as medicines. This means that

dietary supplements will be regulated out of all proportion to their

profile of risk, using an inappropriate pharmaceutical methodology,

by a pharmacy dominated regulator - even though there are

significant differences in risk levels, ingredients and philosophies

between the two industries which are in effective competition with

each other.

 

They acknowledge that in terms of how the new agency will operate it

will simply be an expanded version of the present TGA - effectively

a case of the TGA extending its authority and control to New

Zealand - despite the fact that we were constantly assured during

the Health Select committee inquiry that the new agency would be

quite different from the existing TGA.

 

 

They confirm that the new agency will be 100% cost recovery which

means that all the costs of operating the highly bureaucratic trans

tasman agency will be paid for by industry itself. It estimates that

New Zealand businesses will be required to pay $3.2 million a year

in fees to the TTTGA. This is on top of the costs manufacturers will

incur in obtaining product licenses for every single product they

sell, and for meeting Good Manufacturing Practice standards which

are essentially the same as those for pharmaceuticals. It says all

companies (whatever their size) will have to upgrade their

facilities to GMP standards or cease manufacturing.

 

 

They say the greatest impact of the increased compliance costs will

fall on small businesses, and on companies that import large numbers

of products from different manufacturers. It says that unless the

importers can ensure that all companies they import products from

have Australian style GMP licensing, these companies may need to

find alternative sources of product!

 

 

They acknowledge that there has been no direct consultation with

industry on the costs of regulation. Then say one of the benefits of

the new scheme is that government will be able to transfer $3.1

million in costs to the dietary supplements industry.

 

 

An Australian government's Regulatory Impact Statement acknowledges

that „Australian businesses which already have approval in Australia

(that is, all of them) will have an " early competitive advantage "

over New Zealand firms having to seek local approval for new

products, and will benefit financially from having products on the

market earlier than (New Zealand) firms, with the potential for

enhanced profit.

 

 

They acknowledge the likelihood that companies - both pharmaceutical

and dietary supplements manufacturers - will shift their operations

to Australia, as a result of high compliance costs, reducing the New

Zealand government's tax take.

 

 

They confirm that the new agency will be headquartered in Australia

and will have legal personality‚ in Australian domestic law. It will

be the first in the world where an agency in one country has total

control to regulate and enforce an industry in another country. The

agency will not only make all decisions and regulations about

dietary supplements, it will also monitor these regulations and have

powers to enforce and police the entire dietary supplements industry

in New Zealand - including withdrawing product licenses, shutting

down companies, a la Pan fiasco, which has cost the Australian and

New Zealand industry more than $400 million to date.

 

 

An all-powerful Managing Director will take over the powers of

regulatory decision-making and enforcement presently exercised by

the Minister of Health. Parliament will be asked in implementing

legislation to delegate law-making power to the Managing Director

who will be able to make all regulatory decisions on his own, as the

treaty says he will not even be accountable to the Board for

regulatory functions - let alone to the New Zealand Parliament.

Curiously, the unelected and unaccountable Managing Director will be

able to delegate the power to make decisions to other persons and

organisations of his choice (it's bound to be a he).

 

 

The government has dressed up this abdication of sovereignty by

saying that the Minister of Health will have equal decision-making

powers with the Australian Minister of Health on a Governing

Council, and that New Zealand will have good representation on a

Board which will set budgets and strategy for the agency. The only

problem is that the key regulatory decision-making powers are all

delegated to the Managing Director!

 

 

In essence, then, the proposal is that we hand over control and

sovereignty of a vital New Zealand industry to an expensive, highly

bureaucratic Australian-based organisation over which our Parliament

will have no effective control. The only beneficiaries of this

astonishing abdication of our sovereignty will be Australian

businesses, which will have a competitive advantage in the New

Zealand market, and the government, which will save $3 million in

compliance costs by passing these costs to the dietary supplements

industry.

 

 

In return for this, compliance costs will escalate, small businesses

will go to the wall, the cost of dietary supplements will increase,

entire brands of dietary supplements will be taken off the market,

and consumers will have less choice.

 

 

It is worth remembering that the whole point of pursuing Trans

Tasman Mutual Recognition with Australia was to benefit New Zealand

business and consumers by eliminating regulatory impediments to

trade with Australia. But the effect of harmonising with Australia

through the joint agency will be to burden New Zealand businesses

with increased compliance costs and regulatory impediments (which

will be passed on to consumers), and open up competitive trading

opportunities for Australian businesses, which will likely wipe out

many New Zealand businesses.

 

 

Pursuing mutual recognition, instead of harmonisation through the

TTTGA, would ensure that New Zealand businesses could trade more

freely with Australia without incurring excessive compliance costs

and getting tied up in the over zealous bureaucracy of the

Australian TGA, or giving up our sovereignty.

 

 

If anyone still has any doubts about the effect the proposal would

have on industry, let me quote from an email I received from Bruce

Murrary, Managing Director of Nature's Sunshine Products New

Zealand. Bruce had just returned from attending a two-day conference

in Australia about TGA regulations. He concluded " I cannot emphasise

more the fact that harmonising with the TGA will ruin all innovation

and many of the fine, 30 year formulations manufactured by my

company will disappear as we struggle to meet the pre & post

production testing costs and reformulate our products as numerous

ingredients we use are not on the TGA white list. "

 

 

To ensure that all political parties continue to oppose this

proposal, I would urge people to contact MPs in the coming months

which will be decisive. It is probably worth contacting the

government as well, which presumably is more sensitive to public

opinion at this time.

 

 

Let me assure you that the Green Party will not waver in our

opposition to the joint agency proposal - our party policy is

opposed to handing over our control and sovereignty of this

important industry to an Australian based organisation.

 

 

Australians seek tighter controls on dietary supplements

 

After the Pan fiasco, the Australian government set up a 16 member

expert committee to look at whether regulatory controls over

complementary medicines needed to be further strengthened. Only four

members of the committee had any formal training in complementary

medicine.

 

The committee has released its report that contains a wide range of

recommendations to further strengthen the regulation of

complementary medicines - recommendations that would have an

immediate impact in New Zealand if we were to be regulated by the

TTTGA.

 

The committee recommends that homeopathic medicines be regulated:

that herbal medicines and the use of raw herbs in medicines be

reviewed, to bring them into line with the regulation of other

complementary medicines. It proposes ensuring that legally

enforceable quality standards are in place for all complementary

medicines; removing Practitioner Only dispensing products,

increasing penalties to companies who refuse to provide information

to support claims they make on products etc. The Report

(Complementary Medicines in the Australian Health system) can be

accessed on the Australian TGA website.

 

 

Health Practitioners Competency Bill

 

The Health Practitioners Competency bill was passed in Parliament

last year and will come into effect on 18 September 2004.

 

It will extend coverage to Osteopaths but not to Acupuncturists,

because the government did not support a Green Party amendment to

include Acupuncturists in the bill.

 

Professions which are covered by the bill are busily finalising

their scopes of practice and establishing Registration Authorities

to comply with the new legislation. The Osteopaths have already set

up a Registration Authority and are working on the scope of practice

for their profession.

 

Any profession which is not covered by the bill, such as the

Acupuncturists, can apply at any time to be covered by the bill. The

Ministry of Health has already received an application from

Physiotherapists to come under the bill, but has not yet received

one from Acupuncturists. I gather this is because the different

groups within the acupuncture profession have not yet managed to

resolve their differences, which is a real shame, as most people

agree that Acupuncture should be covered by the bill.

 

 

Pan Pharmaceuticals recall

 

The recall of about 700 Pan Pharmaceutical dietary supplements has

cost the Australian and New Zealand dietary supplements industries

more than $400 million to date. 143 tonnes of the recalled dietary

supplements were destroyed without ever being tested, so there is no

analytical evidence that any of the dietary supplements actually

posed a risk to New Zealand consumers.

 

In my last newsletter I expressed concern that the massive mandatory

recall was pushing many small businesses to the brink of financial

collapse and had been used to tarnish the reputation of the dietary

supplements industry - even though the two products that had sparked

the recall were over-the-counter pharmaceutical products.

 

While the Green party strongly supports GMP appropriate standards

for pharmaceuticals and dietary supplements, and acknowledges there

were serious problems at Pan Pharmaceuticals, I am concerned that

the dietary supplements industry has been unfairly targeted by

regulatory authorities over the Pan Pharmaceutical recall.

 

Since then I have been asking numerous questions of the Minister of

Health about the Pan Pharmaceutical recall. Her answers raise as

many questions as they answer - such as why, if the largest ever

recall was prompted by fabrication and manipulation of tests etc, as

she claims, has nobody ever been prosecuted for the alleged crimes,

or any criminal charges laid, and why have none of the recalled

products ever been tested?

 

 

I print in full a sample of the Minister's answers to my questions.

 

3039 (2004). Sue Kedgley to the Minister of Health (18 March 2004):

Has anyone been arrested or prosecuted for alleged crimes relating

to Pan Pharmaceuticals; if so whom; if not, why not?

 

Hon Annette King (Minister of Health) replied: No one has been

arrested or prosecuted in New Zealand.

 

 

1291 (2004). Sue Kedgley to the Minister of Health (23 February

2004):Were any Pan Pharmaceutical products that were recalled also

destroyed; if so, why?

 

Hon Annette King (Minister of Health) replied: All Pan

Pharmaceuticals medicines and dietary supplements that were recalled

in New Zealand were destroyed. Because Pan Pharmaceuticals'

manufacturing licence had been suspended, there was no confidence

that these products had been manufactured to an appropriate

standard. The destruction of dietary supplements was in accordance

with section 40 of the Food Act 1981.

 

 

1292 (2004). Sue Kedgley to the Minister of Health (23 February

2004):If Pan Pharmaceutical products were destroyed, what volume was

destroyed and where?

 

Hon Annette King (Minister of Health) replied: A total of 20,359

units of Pan Pharmaceuticals medicines were destroyed in New

Zealand. In excess of 143 tonnes of dietary supplements were

destroyed at various centres in New Zealand, primarily in Auckland.

 

 

1295 (2004). Sue Kedgley to the Minister of Health (23 February

2004):Were any of the Pan Pharmaceutical products that were

destroyed the subject of reported adverse reactions or death; if so,

what are the details?

 

Hon Annette King (Minister of Health) replied: Further to the

interim reply to this question, I am now able to provide the

information requested.

 

No direct linkage was established in New Zealand between Pan

Pharmaceuticals products and adverse reactions or death.

 

 

1294 (2004). Sue Kedgley to the Minister of Health (23 February

2004):What were the test results of any of the Pan Pharmaceutical

products that were recalled and tested?

 

Hon Annette King (Minister of Health) replied: No products were

tested in New Zealand.

 

 

3130 (2004). Sue Kedgley to the Minister for Food Safety (19 March

2004):Further to her reply to written question No 01293 (2004), what

are the appropriate standards in Section 40 of the New Zealand Food

Act that were breached an that therefore initiated the recall of Pan

Pharmaceutical products in New Zealand?

 

Hon Annette King (Minister for Food Safety) replied: The standard

applied that resulted in a recall of Pan Pharmaceutical products

being initiated was that set out in section 40(1) of the Food Act

1981 relating to protecting the public. Section 40(1) states that

this protection can relate to " any food that is unsound or unfit for

human consumption or is damaged or deteriorated or perished, or that

is contaminated with any poisonous, deleterious, or injurious

substance. "

 

In terms of the decision to recall, protecting the public was

paramount and this was made initially on the basis of the reported

extent of non-compliances of Pan Pharmaceutical manufacturing

practices (including data manipulation, results fabrication,

ingredient substitution, deficient raw material and finished product

controls, unsatisfactory process controls and inadequate assurance

regarding mix-up +/- (cross) contamination) that resulted in the

suspension of the Pan Pharmaceutical licence by the Australian

Therapeutic Goods Administration and the impact such non-compliances

would have on products from Pan Pharmaceuticals.

 

Posted at May 10, 2004 12:23 PM

For Health Freedom,

John C. Hammell, President

International Advocates for Health Freedom

556 Boundary Bay Road

Point Roberts, WA 98281-8702 USA

http://www.iahf.com

jham

800-333-2553 N.America

360-945-0352 World