At 04:05 PM 3/10/98 +1100, you wrote:
>Dear Mr Hammell,
>
>Thank you for your letter explaining your concerns about the new regulations
>which the Howard Government is imposing on a wide range of commonly used
>complementary medicines.  I have received many letters and telephone calls
>objecting to these changes.
>
>Before the last election, the Liberal and National Parties promised to:
>
> "ensure that the Therapeutic Goods Administration do not throw up
>unnecessary barriers to people obtaining 'alternative' therapeutic products,
>where the intrinsic safety of the product is not in doubt, but the
>therapeutic effectiveness is unproven."
>
>Unfortunately, last Christmas Eve the Government gazetted new regulations
>which do exactly the opposite.  These changes fail to strike the right
>balance between protecting consumers from false or misleading claims, and
>ensuring they continue to have access to vitamins, minerals and herbal
>products which have been available for many years.

Senator West, this sort of back stabbing is occurring against consumers
world wide in this area at the moment. It is being orchestrated by the
multinational corporations which pull the strings of governments world
wide. I am seeing the same exact things unfolding in England, Canada, and
the USA, as well as all over Europe and in S.Africa. The corruption I am
witnessing world wide is of an enormous magntitude, and God bless you for
helping us stand up to it. You were the only member of the entire
Australian Senate who even bothered to write me back. I am forwarding your
message to a lot of people in Australia and will put it in the Australian
section of the IAHF website where it is sure to help you win support from
many of your countrymen and women.
 

>The Labor Party will try to force the Federal Government to allow the public
>and all key stakeholders to be consulted on these important issues.  We
>continue to support reasonable and balanced regulation of published claims,
>however we believe that the Federal Government has gone too far in seeking
>to completely ban the use of the expression "drug free".
>
>The Labor Party will be moving to disallow this particular regulation in the
>Senate and will seek to use the Senate Committee system to encourage a
>broader debate on the increased regulation which Dr Wooldridge and the TGA
>are seeking to impose.

Thanks you for seeking to broaden the debate. I appreciate that, and so
will your constituents. I am appraising Senators Orrin Hatch and Tom Harkin
of the United States Senate of your situation there in Australia, in case
you should want to discuss any of this with them. They have dealt with
these sorts of issues here. So has Congressman DeFazio of Oregon. We have a
bill on the table right now here called HR 2868 The Consumer Health Free
Speech Act, which will remove food from the current overly broad definition
of "drug" for the very simple reason that foods are not "drugs" they have
an entirely different mechanism of action in the body. They were given to
us by our Creator for our use, and it is our inalienable right as human
beings on this planet to have access to them. This is my message to your
Senate. Please inform your Senate that the American people are very deeply
concerned about how our brothers and sisters in Australia are faring here
because we care very deeply about issues pertaining to the public health,
and wish for people world wide to not be oppressed. Gross human rights
violations are being committeed by the FDA, TGA, HPB, MCC, MCA, etc. world
wide. These regulators are nothing more than trade associations for their
pharmaceutical masters, and it is killing huge numbers of people. This must
STOP!
 

>For our campaign to succeed, we will either need to force the Howard
>Government to back down, or gain the support of the Democrats, the Greens
>and Senator Harradine.

Please tell me all about Senator Harradine, I need to figure out if theres
any way I can help here somehow. How do I contact this individual? What is
his or her background, phone, fax, email, snail mail? What is the best
approach? Would it do any good if this person heard from consumers outside
of Australia? I could put this person in touch with the world.
 

>Thank you for letting me know your concerns about the Federal Government's
>heavy handed changes to the regulation of complimentary medicines.

No problem, Sue. Thanks for being there for the people of your country, and
thanks for taking the time to share your views with IAHF and with concerned
consumers world wide. When you face always towards the sun, the shadows
fall behind.
 

>Yours sincerely
>
>
>Senator Sue West
>Senator for New South Wales