Mathers Mojo: Natural Health Products Bill — Second Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Mathers Mojo: Natural Health Products Bill — Second Reading 
[Sitting date: 20 March 2013. Volume:688;Page:8814. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
MOJO MATHERS (Green) 
: 
 The Green Party is extremely pleased to be supporting this Natural Health Products Bill. Like others before me I would like to thank all of the Health Committee members for their constructive approach on this bill. I would like to acknowledge the issues raised beforehand by Dr Paul Hutchison and by Maryan Street. There were elements of this bill that were quite challenging for us to deal with and we all had to make a bridge between things like the challenge between scientific and traditional evidence and the challenge proposed between different categories of food natural health products supplementary products and medicines. But overall we are very pleased with this bill. One of the best outcomes for us in this bill is that it ensures that we retain control of setting the rules around the regulation of natural health and supplementary products within New Zealand rather than handing that over to the heavy-handed trans-Tasman regulator as was originally proposed many years back. I would like to acknowledge the incredible work of my predecessor Sue Kedgley who worked incredibly hard on helping put down the foundations for this bill and her steadfast commitment to bringing in a low-risk regulatory scheme that is appropriate for the low-risk nature of natural health products. 
It has been pointed out that we need these sensible rules that protect both consumers and manufacturers so that consumers can have confidence natural health products that they use are safe that they do not contain toxic ingredients and that they are not adulterated with medicines such as steroids as is an increasing concern with some imports. We also need sensible rules so that New Zealand’s reputation as a producer of quality natural health products is maintained. It is equally important that these rules are simple low cost and easy to comply with in keeping with the low-risk nature of most natural health products and so that consumer access and choice is not unduly restricted by excessive compliance costs. We are very pleased that the Government has agreed to meet the cost of policy and regulatory advice and enforcement as well as the capital costs for setting up the scheme. A major focus for us was to ensure that the rules balance the need for protection with the risks of the products involved so that we do not end up strangling innovation as has happened in Australia. 
We are particularly pleased that agreement was reached around our requests to include a schedule of approved pharmacopoeia in the bill. This schedule will make the process of approving traditional claims for low-risk conditions straightforward for many natural health products and will help keep compliance costs down. We are also very pleased that products prepared as part of traditional medicine practice on a one-to-one basis have been exempted as each product preparation is unique to the individual. Requiring each product to be notified would have made this practice unviable and impractical. The Green Party wanted to see a clause in the legislation to recognise the Treaty. We are disappointed that this has not been accepted at this stage. We will be moving a Supplementary Order Paper at the Committee stage to amend the legislation to include such a clause. 
I also want to acknowledge here some of the concerns that were raised by submitters to the bill about what they felt might be potential impacts. In part some of these submissions were because of confusion with the Food Bill. One common concern that was expressed was around the delegation of powers under clause 45. Some submitters expressed a concern that this would mean that at some point in the future regulation powers would be delegated back to an overseas authority. Officials advised us that because section 41 of the State Sector Act 1988 allows only Public Service chief executives to delegate on behalf of the authority and they can delegate only to Public Service employees any delegation of power will be constrained by these requirements. So we are confident that under this bill there will not be any delegation of powers to an overseas regulator. 
Another common concern expressed by submitters was that this bill would stop people from making their own home remedies for personal use. These concerns are unfounded. The bill covers the regulation of natural health products and supplementary products for sale and distribution in New Zealand where the term “product” refers to the total product which includes the ingredients the packaging and the claims. This bill does not affect products prepared by individuals for personal use rather than for onsale. So people will still be able to prepare their own herbal remedies that have been passed down through the generations. We are pleased that the Government has committed to ensuring that the detailed regulatory work that will affect much of how the bill works in practice will be undertaken in consultation with both the industry and the public. 
It has been an incredibly interesting experience for me working on this bill. I have really appreciated the advice from Ministry of Health officials who have had to deal with numerous inquiries from the committee on various aspects of this bill as we sought to gain clarification around the boundaries of the different aspects. As part of our memorandum of understanding agreement the Government has also agreed that the Green Party will be involved in every stage of the development of the regulations and I am looking forward to being part of this process and working for the best possible outcomes for consumers and manufacturers alike.