KEY POINTS:
If New Zealand joins Australia in the control of medical and pseudo-medical products, more than 1000 popular cosmetics, sunscreens and dietary supplements will disappear from our market, says a major supplier, Johnson & Johnson. We have been hearing of this joint regulatory scheme for eight years. It has
taken seven of those years for the Government to produce legislation and put it into Parliament, where it is still before a select committee.
It is taking so long because it is a seriously flawed proposal, introducing a more restrictive and costly system of licensing that, importers say, will make many products uneconomic in our small market. The proposal survives because the Australian Government, for reasons hard to fathom, has come to regard it as some sort of test or "template" for New Zealand's commitment to closer economic relations.
Medicines that are allowed to make curative claims are subject to their own rigorous licensing, and a degree of quality control is obviously necessary for equipment such as pacemakers, endoscopes and contact lenses which would be scrutinised by the joint Therapeutic Goods Agency. But how much supervision is really needed for vitamins, minerals and other dietary supplements? Or herbal extracts, homeopathic remedies, aromatherapy and even sunscreens?
A single regulatory agency for all health products is an idea that predates the present Government. National put aside a bill in 1992 to investigate a joint proposal from Australia and agreed to it in 1999. Labour, which came to office that year, has tried to push ahead with it despite sustained lobbying and protests from parts of the industry. Labour's governing partners since 2005, New Zealand First and United Future, opposed the inclusion of complementary medicines in legislation setting up the joint Therapeutic Goods Agency but agreed to support it to a select committee. The committee is due to finish its deliberations on the bill next month, so this long-burning issue is coming to a decision at last.
Were it not for the Australian interest, the Government would probably have dropped the idea long ago. But Foreign Minister Alexander Downer has raised the issue in talks with National leader John Key and no doubt with our Foreign Minister, NZ First leader Winston Peters. We can only wonder why the rules governing this industry are so important to Canberra.
Joint standards and mutual recognition of qualifications help facilitate easier trade between countries but that should not mean the more liberal partner has to adopt the regime of the other. Australia sees fit to ban about 200 natural ingredients that can be used in this country.
Dietary supplements and other potions are easily checked by the market. Those who try them expect a discernible benefit and will not long waste their money. If the concoctions do harm they will be quickly dropped, not only by the sufferer but many others who hear about it. Suppliers are highly sensitive to the products' reputation and will continue to be, regardless of whether the Government overlays the market with a new layer of costly red tape.
The proposed joint agency would run its own checks on manufacturing plants, at the suppliers' expense, and police their advertising to ensure all therapeutic claims are backed by scientific evidence. Interestingly, traditional Maori healing is exempt from the requirements. But many of the products that may fall short of scientific verification will be beneficial to those who believe in them. If they have done no harm, let them be.