Fitzsimons Jeanette: General Debate 
Fitzsimons Jeanette: General Debate 
[Volume:621;Page:16318] 
JEANETTE FITZSIMONS (Co-Leader—Green) 
: 
 I move  
That the House take note of miscellaneous business 
. Yesterday the Local Government and Environment Committee reported on its inquiry into the so-called “corngate” incident. Although our language was polite it was in fact a damning report on the actions—or rather the inactions—of Government officials responsible for our biosecurity. In 2000 we had a 4-year-old law that prohibited the import of GE seed but that had absolutely no monitoring or enforcement no testing at the border and no declarations required—“Do not look do not see do not know.” 
The first people to suspect that that might be the case and to try to remedy it was the Green Party. In October 2000 I asked two written questions of the Minister that provided the information that no testing was done and that the Government thought we could just leave it to importers and the market. We also raised the subject the same week in our evidence to the Royal Commission on Genetic Modification. Shortly afterwards we learnt that the Environmental Risk Management Authority and the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry discussed seeking funding for doing something about that—in a very non-urgent way—but by the time they had that discussion the “corngate” seed was already in the country. It is not the first time the Green Party has led the way and been shown to be right. We have been saying for years that GE crops and animals would damage our markets and destroy a major economic advantage but the Government placed its hopes on the knowledge economy in agricultural biotech and let us look at where that is now. 
The agricultural biotech industry has lost $40 billion on the US stock market mainly because consumers have not “got over it” as the US predicted and accepted GE foods. Some medical biotech is doing quite well. Those companies are using smart technology whereby no plant or animal needs to be released into the environment—New Zealand’s own BLIS Technologies for example. But worldwide the GE food industry is in disarray. Monsanto has withdrawn all its applications to market its GE wheat because no one wants it. Bayer and Syngenta have withdrawn from the UK. Monsanto has given up its plans to grow GE canola in Australia. PPL Therapeutics which in New Zealand had a flock of 4000 sheep expressing human proteins in their milk has gone bust and all the sheep have been destroyed. The European Union has lifted its moratorium under dire threats from the US but no one wants to grow anything there because the supermarkets will not stock it and consumers will not buy it. Company after company is falling over. The New Zealand Life Sciences Network no longer has funds to employ a public relations person because it does not get enough subscriptions. 
It was the Green Party campaign in 1998 and 1999 and the 92000 signatures on my petition that led to a public demand for a moratorium while a royal commission debated the issues. The first application for the release of a GE crop canola was imminent in 1999 but was withdrawn at the last minute. Since then information about the risks of GE and market resistance to it have accumulated. Every week there is a new story about unpredicted pollen spread contamination of crops and worrying health effects on test animals. 
A year ago next week the 4-year moratorium on the release of GE organisms was lifted but there has been no release. There has been no application for release. There has been no suggestion anyone can find that there are any proposals in the pipeline. Biosecurity protocols and border testing are in place and inadvertent contamination is under better control. I sincerely hope the Government will act on the committee’s unanimous recommendation and make Government access to all laboratory data and records a condition of approval for importing seeds so that Parliament can never again be stymied in its quest for the truth by a transnational company that just thumbs its nose at the New Zealand Parliament. 
Clearly the Government could easily have agreed to our request at the last election and extended the moratorium for another 3 years and then had our support for this term. But that is now history and we need to look at the future. New Zealand is still essentially GE free but protecting this global market advantage is no longer under the Government’s control. Anyone who wants to damage our economic advantage can apply for approval to release a GE crop and may get Environmental Risk Management Authority approval. 
When Parliament resumes we have another chance to say clearly that this is not a country that wants to grow GE in the outdoors. Ian Ewen-Street’s member’s bill to reinstate the moratorium just to 2008 will be debated in the House in 3 weeks. I hope members will listen and take that chance.