Stewart Barbara: Natural Health Products Bill — Second Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Stewart Barbara: Natural Health Products Bill — Second Reading 
[Sitting date: 20 March 2013. Volume:688;Page:8815. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
BARBARA STEWART (NZ First) 
: 
 I stand today on behalf of New Zealand First to support the Natural Health Products Bill. We are looking forward to the new title the Natural Health and Supplementary Products Bill because we believe that that far more accurately describes this bill. New Zealand First supports this bill as it gives greater transparency to all New Zealand consumers of these particular products. Consumers need to have a clear understanding of what is actually in the product they are buying and of course this needs to be listed on the label so that we can have some confidence in the product. This bill is about protecting consumers’ health which is something New Zealand First strongly supports. We believe that this bill will give greater confidence to consumers when they go into the health food shop to make the choices that they believe will help them along the way. 
It was good to work on this bill in the Health Committee to have an input and to see such a collegial cross-party approach to the reviewing of this bill. So thank you Dr Hutchison Dr Blue other committee members and of course the officials who came to the committee endlessly. It was through this process that New Zealand First moved forward with its support of the bill. We did have some second thoughts about this bill to begin with and lots of queries but these were rectified as the select committee process actually went on. Despite this we are still going to be keeping an eye on the implementation process to ensure that our concerns do not come to fruition. 
As Dr Hutchison said the Health Committee received many submissions on this particular bill—739 to be precise. As a committee we considered each and every one of them so it was quite a time-consuming process. Exporters and consumers welcomed the safeguards and the validation of a regulatory system. It was really important to their business. But on the other hand some were afraid that this would create costs and barriers for manufacturers of such low-risk products and these were some of the concerns that we in New Zealand First also shared. It was actually great to see such a large input from members of the public. It shows democracy in full force as many different groups had their own say on the bill and they all had many different ideas which helped construct a bill that will reflect their ideas as well. I think this can also be reflected in the cross-party support for the Natural Health Products Bill and the equal balance of the bill. So now the select committee is confident that the bill will provide consumers with the assurance that the natural health and supplementary products they buy are safe and true to their label. There may be however some issues that we overlooked at the select committee. I received a letter from a consumer who thought that we should tighten up some parts of the bill. I hope that that letter was sent to all members of the Health Committee to act on and as the process continues I will be looking to see whether or not those concerns are actually met. 
The Natural Health Products Regulatory Authority is going to be set up within the Ministry of Health and we in New Zealand First are going to be very interested to see whether the best people will actually be hired for the job or whether the Government is going to hire its mates. We will be keeping an eye on that particular area. The authority is going to be in charge of administering the Act and its regulations because all of those who wish to import or manufacture natural health products or those who arrange to import natural health products are going to need to have approval from this regulatory authority. It will be a relatively straightforward process and not as strict as many of the consumers thought that perhaps it might be. All applications will be recorded in an online register and the database will contain approved regulators of the ingredients claims and evidence of health benefits and of manufacturing standards a list of prohibited ingredients and the notification of new ingredients prior to marketing. Of course this is going to be crucial in ensuring that the process runs smoothly. In New Zealand First we did hold some concerns regarding the online database. We are going to be keeping just a watchful eye over that particularly as we are very aware that the Government has not had the best of luck with its computer systems running smoothly and all of the recent examples sort of bring that to mind. So it is something— 
Dr Paul Hutchison 
: It’s coming right. 
BARBARA STEWART 
: I am pleased that it is coming right. It is something that we will just be keeping an eye on Dr Hutchison to ensure that it does run smoothly. 
There will also be the appointment of a technical advisory committee which will be advising the authority on its decisions. We know that the members of the advisory committee will all be highly experienced. They must all have some knowledge and experience relating to natural health and supplementary products—and Dr Hutchison agrees with me. This gives us some confidence that those in charge of the bill the people who are doing this regulating actually know what they are doing. This should help the bill heaps. 
In the past there have been lots of healthy supplements available in New Zealand that have not had a lot of products listed on the label or sometimes not even listed and some of these products are totally unknown to many New Zealanders. Many have also contained little or no health benefit to the user despite the fact that many consumers are led to believe by the advertising that they will be great for your health because they are natural and that we need them. On the other hand some of these products have also been somewhat risky to consumers’ health yet the current legislation has never ever made this well known and clear to the consumer and we are pleased to see that the new legislation will actually help out on this point. 
To illustrate the point we were aware that there were recent cases of natural products that were imported into New Zealand from Asia that were popular and were claimed to be made from a plant growing in South-east Asia. Medsafe eventually discovered that this natural product contained mostly unnatural antibiotics. If at the time of this incident we had had the regulatory authority set up within the Ministry of Health this product would more than likely never ever have made it into New Zealand and would not have had the opportunity to pose any potential harm to consumers. Also consumers were led to believe that this product was going to be good for their health because it was an old wives’ tale. 
Dr Paul Hutchison 
: Very deceptive. 
BARBARA STEWART 
: Yes. I think it is important to note that the bill does not impede practitioners from continuing to provide their services. This bill does not apply to any supplementary product that is made by a practitioner because we are very aware that many New Zealanders will often choose to go to an alternative healer rather than to a medical practitioner. 
New Zealand First will be supporting this bill as it provides New Zealanders with greater transparency and confidence in knowing that the products they are buying are true to their label. It will ensure that New Zealanders are safe and that our products overseas are top quality because we believe that an exporter-driven economy is absolutely paramount. Overseas buyers need to have confidence in these products. New Zealand First is very happy to support this bill. 
The question was put that the amendments recommended by the Health Committee by majority be agreed to.