Ewen-Street Ian: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
Ewen-Street Ian: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Volume:617;Page:12844] 
7.  
IAN EWEN-STREET (Green) 
 to the  
Minister for Biosecurity 
: If corn seed contaminated with LibertyLink T25 is found to still be growing at present will it be removed by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry; if so under what authority? 
Hon MARIAN HOBBS (Acting Minister for Biosecurity) 
: Under the Hazardous Substances and New Organisms Act the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry has powers to ensure the disposal of unapproved genetically modified organisms when they are found. 
Ian Ewen-Street 
: If that answer means yes how do the farmers who planted the corn claim compensation for costs and loss of income but if that answer means no how can the Government claim to have a policy of zero tolerance if it knowingly leaves contaminated crops in the ground? 
Hon MARIAN HOBBS 
: If the member is saying that there is a difference between detecting a new organism and removing it from the ground the zero tolerance of non-approved new organisms remains whenever they are discovered—whether they are discovered at the time they are tested which is in bulk and it is easier to remove the seeds or when they are discovered in the ground. 
Clayton Cosgrove 
: Does the Minister have confidence in the system that monitors the importation of seed for planting? 
Hon MARIAN HOBBS 
: Yes. As this incident shows the system is working. A routine test ordered by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry showed that the testing laboratory was not carrying out its contract properly. The retesting was commissioned by the ministry and showed that the seed imported contained some genetically modified material. The ministry is now tracing the seed. 
Hon Dr Nick Smith 
: Is the Minister aware that the laboratory deregistered by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry in March—Biogenetic Services—was the very laboratory that she and the Prime Minister relied upon in the statement that the Novartis corn imported in November 2002 was not contaminated and now that that laboratory has been found to be unreliable will we get an apology from her and the Prime Minister who put hand on heart and told New Zealand that that corn was never contaminated? 
Hon MARIAN HOBBS 
: No there will be no apology. As I have said many times in this House in the year 2000 those seeds were extensively tested and to the highest level of confidence were shown not to contain genetically modified seed. Since then we have vastly improved our biosecurity system and our testing. We can test now to 0.05. 
Larry Baldock 
: Does the Minister agree that the concerns of opponents of GE about public health or agriculture need to be kept in perspective especially if the GM seed discovered is present in such small quantities and is barely enough to make up 44 corn cobs or if planted cover half a rugby field whereas the remaining non-GM seed in the shipments concerned would make up 88000 corn cobs or if planted cover 12000 rugby fields and that the Green Party’s paranoia is really unacceptable and is scaremongering? 
Mr SPEAKER 
: Everything but the last part of the question can be answered. 
Hon MARIAN HOBBS 
: I am very much aware that there can be hysteria when people cannot visualise what 22000 or even 14000 seeds look like and the member is correct when he talks about half a football field. But I also want to reassure the House and the people of New Zealand that there is no risk to human health and no risk to the environment. 
Ian Ewen-Street 
: How do the farmers who have planted this imported contaminated corn seed claim compensation for their costs and loss of income? Do they do so from the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry—that is the Government; in other words the taxpayer subsidises them—or do they claim from Biogenetic Services the lab that got it wrong or from Bayer the company that owns the intellectual property rights? 
Mr SPEAKER 
: There are three questions there. The Minister can have a go at two of them. 
Hon MARIAN HOBBS 
: I want to reassure the member again that the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry is working with the growers. At the moment it is at the stage of working with the different distributors of the seed to determine the whereabouts and the state of the seed. I do not want to speculate in hypothetical terms about people’s liability or costs but I should imagine that if we find farmers with that seed planted in the ground and not in bags they will cooperate with the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry—if it should come to that. 
Jeanette Fitzsimons 
: Could the Minister please be clear about what that means—if farmers cooperate with the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry and pull out and destroy crops that are contaminated with GE seed will they be compensated; if so by whom? 
Hon MARIAN HOBBS 
: Since we have not arrived at the stage where we have found the seed planted in any field I am not prepared to make any hypothetical statement about compensation or not. 
Jeanette Fitzsimons 
: Has any effort been made by the Government to work with other countries to identify seed-growing locations with the least risk of contamination and with safeguards against seed mixing and to source our future seed imports from those areas? 
Hon MARIAN HOBBS 
: It is not the Government that actually imports the seed. Farmers import the seed and they choose at the moment to import their seed from the United States and from Canada which is the biggest source of the greatest varieties of seeds. If one decides to remain with seed grown only in New Zealand—as one member of the Green Party suggested to me today—then one is at risk of inbreeding.