Kedgley Sue: General Debates 
Kedgley Sue: General Debates 
[Volume:611;Page:8773] 
SUE KEDGLEY (Green) 
: 
 Everywhere I go in New Zealand these days I am asked the same question: “Why is the Labour Government pigheadedly ignoring public opinion on such a significant issue as the lifting of the moratorium—an issue that will shape the destiny of New Zealand for the next few decades and perhaps for ever—and dismissing the risks that lifting it will pose to the future of our nation in such a cavalier way?”. Why is the party that ushered in a nuclear-free New Zealand and helped us forge an independent identity in the world taking us down a path where we will lose for ever our GE-free status and reputation as a source of clean pure products? 
That was the theme of the rally held outside Parliament yesterday. One speaker Jim Kebble a former New Zealand Labour Council member puzzled out loud about why the Government was ignoring the wishes of the vast majority of people by lifting the moratorium. Clearly it was not doing so for trade reasons because there are no market or trading opportunities for any GE crops. Nor is it doing so to preserve our environment. If cross-contamination in the vast prairies of Canada cannot be avoided there is no way we will avoid it here. He said that if the Government was going to go against the wishes of the vast majority of New Zealanders on such a significant issue and risk our trade our environment and our future in the process there would need to be some clearly articulated principle for doing so. However the question is: what is the principle? And if there is a principle here why have the people of New Zealand never been told what it is? If the Government is not making a stand on a matter of principle what is the reason for its stand? 
Most people who puzzle over the Government’s motives in lifting the moratorium eventually conclude that there can be only one explanation and that is pressure from the American Government and various multinational corporations. If we cast our mind back to the highly publicised time when Helen Clark met George Bush in the White House we can speculate that George Bush said to Helen Clark something to the effect: “If you want a free-trade deal with us you must lift the moratorium or you can kiss goodbye to a free-trade deal.” If that is the explanation and there seems to be no other one the Government is risking our export markets our environment and our independence to appease a foreign power. I believe that this underlying threat to our sovereignty is the reason I suspect that the disquiet and concern about lifting the moratorium has spread to the Labour Party rank and file. 
I issue a plea to the Labour Government not to repeat the mistakes of the past not to ignore the views of the people it was elected to represent or indeed its own members and not to put the interests of a foreign power and a handful of multinational corporations ahead of the interests of New Zealanders. 
Finally it is extraordinary that in the face of nationwide concern and disquiet about the lifting of the moratorium all our Prime Minister has done is attack Green co-leader Jeanette Fitzsimons. Today three Ministers in this debate went on and on about how we should not attack people their mana or their credibility—the previous speaker said that—and that we should play the ball and not the person. Why then does their Prime Minister not heed her advice? Why has she “played the ball” as the previous speaker said rather than the game? 
Personality attacks like this are always the resort of those who have no arguments to muster to defend their stance. It is curious that we have had a cowering silence from Labour Party members about the moratorium and have heard no arguments why they are in favour of it. We have heard none. Instead we have heard personal attacks from the Prime Minister with no attempt to debate the issues or answer the questions that New Zealanders around the country are asking. Far from cowering in the face of these attacks I can assure the House that the Green Party sees them as an admission of defeat by the Government. We challenge the Labour Party rank and file the Labour members here today and the Labour Ministers to come up with some argument some explanation some reason or some matter of principle as to why they are defying public opinion in this way.