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NSW Legislation Targets Naturopaths |
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by Meryl Dorey
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01 October 2006 |
 A few days ago, the NSW Health Minister issued a press release that the state would be cracking down on 'shonky' health practitioners. This was taken up by the ABC and other media outlets.
These reports suggest that the original press release named as its primary areas of focus various types of naturopathy, including counsellors, massage therapists and herbalists. The key wording here is 'promise things they can't deliver'.
A few years ago the NSW Government adopted a moderately hostile stance towards naturopathy in the state, while establishing links with Professor John Dwyer, a skeptic and a long-term opponent of natural health. The government was particularly concerned about therapies that were 'scientifically unproven', in other words those that do not meet the dictates of 20th century reductionist science. As a result of lobbying by natural health peak bodies, NSW authorities did not pursue their plans, except to a limited extent with some practitioners of Live Blood Analysis.
From looking back to this last episode, it is likely that 'promise things they can't deliver' can be interpreted to mean 'make claims for therapies that our team of 'experts' tell us do not work'. 'Counselling' therapies at risk of a crackdown include Thought Field Therapy (TFT), Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT), Be Set Free Fast, Neuro Stress Release, the Mace Method and Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprogramming. The same applies to 'hands off' therapies include reiki, pranic healing, spiritual healing and Chiron Healing. Others might be at risk too.
This week, the Health Legislation Amendment (Unregistered Health Practitioners) Bill 2006 is being voted on in the Legislative Assembly (Lower House) and Legislative Council (Upper House). It can be accessed as a large PDF which unfortunately takes a while to download.
As most people will be too busy to plough through all 81 pages, of concern to naturopaths is Part 10AN on page 25, sections a), b) and c), which reads:
Advertisement or Promotion of Health Services
A person must not advertise or otherwise promote the provision of a health service in a manner that:
a) is false, misleading or deceptive, or
b) is likely to mislead or deceive, or
c) creates, or is likely to create, an unjustified expectation of beneficial treatment
Although it is obviously important to protect the public from unqualified people pretending to be qualified health professionals, it seems important to me that the net is not cast so wide that it shuts down certain practitioners, based on the NSW Government's view of what is scientifically valid. Ostensibly non-harmful therapies such as those listed above are legal (to the best of my knowledge) in all Western countries, and if NSW Fair Trading were to ban practitioners from advertising them, it would be at odds with practices in other states and countries.
To give an example of what we might see if this legislation passes, a few years ago a Live Blood Analysis practitioner called Jennie Burke was targeted by the federal ACCC and the NSW Department of Fair Trading in relation to advertising materials that went against the grain of mainstream medical opinion. At the time, these were described as 'misleading'.
Luckily, this bill died before it was passed – one only hopes that this death was due to public pressure by both satisfied patients and the practitioners who serve them. This is far from the end of the story however since the list of ‘recommendations’ which have come out of this effort are frightening at best – incredibly undemocratic at worst. Make no mistake – if we allow these recommendations to be pushed through, we will have no choice at all when it comes to our health.
Where do you come in?
We must let our state representatives know how we feel about this and a quick email – written once and sent to all members of parliament (State) will have a fantastic effect if enough of you do it. All the email needs to say is that you oppose restrictions on the practice of natural therapies and that if the government feels that it needs to protect the population, why don’t they do an investigation into the more than 18,000 Australians who are dying every year in our public hospital system as a result of properly prescribed medical drugs?
You can access the list of Parliamentarians for each state on the internet. A quick 2 sentence email – as stated above – will do wonders at raising the profile of this issue with those whose votes will determine your rights for years to come. Don’t put it off – please do it now!
The information for this Taking Action feature was obtained from the following sources:
Martin Oliver
Email:
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Michael Bending
Alliance for Health Freedom Australia
http://www.ahf-au.org
'All that is required for evil to prevail is for good men to do nothing'
- Edmund Burke (1729-1797), British writer and politician -
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