Rt Hon Winston Peters
New Zealand First Leader
Member of Parliament for Northland
17 MAY 2017

SCRAP NATURAL HEALTH PRODUCTS BILL

New Zealand First says the Natural Health Products and Supplementary Products Bill is such an embarrassment to Parliament that the government should do the decent thing and scrap it.

“Only National could turn a regulatory molehill like natural health products into Mt Everest,” says New Zealand First Leader and Northland MP Rt Hon Winston Peters.

“The Natural Health Products and Supplementary Products Bill has languished through three Parliaments and is on course for a fourth. It was introduced in September 2011 but the last time anyone spoke on it was four years ago in March 2013 during its second reading.

“This Bill is regulatory overkill and the more New Zealand First looks into it, the more we realise the Natural Health Products Bill is a solution looking for a problem. Worse, it seems that pressure for it has come from across the Tasman and we need to tell the Aussies to naff off.

“A ‘new regulatory regime, separate from those in place for food and medicines’ is expensive bureaucratic double-up. We believe the regulation of Natural Health Products and Supplementary Products is adequately provided for under other legislation.

“Ironically, that’s how the system is working right now and quite incredibly, it works.

“There is no way New Zealand First will support the creation of more bureaucracy that will kneecap New Zealand exporters,” says Mr Peters.

ENDS

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