National not to back compromise complementary medicines bill

NOTE: See update below.

John Key has said that it was never asked by the Government to consider the compromise bill promoted by Winston Peters – that only the minor parties were targeted, and that having now looked at the proposal, they would support it.

I suspect the decision may not go down too well with some in the complementary medicines industry. I haven’t read the detailed compromise but if I recall only those who sell in Australia will need to go to the trans-tasman agency.

My concern is compliance costs on the very small traders. Australia historically over-regulates and adopting their regulatory methods and standards isn’t always desirable.

UPDATE: National is not backing the Peters compromise. It seems that John Key said he would back a bill with complementary medicines removed from the regime and the NZ Herald interpreted that as referring to the Peters compromise. It sounds like an honest interpretation mistake but there is the potential for a round of finger pointing between the Herald and National on it. Not a great look.