10 February 2005
Govt suffers setback on trans-Tasman plans
The Australian and New Zealand governments' decision to delay the establishment of a trans-Tasman agency to regulate
dietary supplements is a victory for consumers and commonsense, Green MP Sue Kedgley said.
"This is a major setback for the Government's plan to handover control of our dietary supplements industry to an
Australian-based agency. Hopefully, it will be a fatal blow," Ms Kedgley, Green Health Spokesperson.
"The Government signed a Treaty which guaranteed the agency would come into effect on July 1 this year, and it promised
the Australian government it would have the legislation through by Christmas last year. Now it is admitting defeat and
acknowledging that it cannot muster the numbers in Parliament to get the legislation through in time."
The Trans-Tasman Therapeutic Goods Agency (TTTGA) would be an Australia-based agency which regulated all New Zealand
pharmaceuticals, dietary supplements, and medical devices.
Ms Kedgley said the Government appeared to be getting increasingly desperate about its inability to get legislation
establishing the agency through the House.
"It is resorting to desperation tactics and is calling a meeting today with selected industry representatives to try to
claim that the Government has overwhelming industry support for its proposal.
"In fact, the Government has refused to meet with the hundreds of small dietary supplements businesses that would be
driven out of business by the TTTGA, and who are therefore implacably opposed to it.
"Resorting to these sorts of tactics only underlines the Government's desperation on this issue and inability to get
momentum for its proposal.
"The overwhelming majority of consumers and the industry don't want to hand over our sovereignty to an off-shore agency
which has a reputation for being draconian and excessively bureaucratic and for imposing huge and unnecessary compliance
costs on the dietary supplements industry."
ENDS