Fitzsimons Jeanette: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
Fitzsimons Jeanette: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Volume:611;Page:8605] 
1. JEANETTE FITZSIMONS (Co-Leader—Green) 
 to the  
Minister for the Environment 
: In view of her statement reported on Sunday that “A two-year moratorium enabled us to work through the recommendations. That work will be completed when the moratorium expires on October 29.” will the work in fact be completed by that date? 
Hon MARIAN HOBBS (Minister for the Environment) 
: 
 Yes but please remember that the royal commission advised us that we were ready to proceed at the time of its report in October 2001. It expected that the work would be done simultaneously or under a call-in procedure. 
Jeanette Fitzsimons 
: What has the Government done to implement royal commission recommendation 10.6 that all parties work to resolve the Wai 262 and Wai 740 claims currently before the Waitangi Tribunal as soon as possible? 
Hon MARIAN HOBBS 
: That work is continuing. There has been work done with the Waitangi Tribunal on those particular issues. 
Dr Ashraf Choudhary 
: Did the Royal Commission on Genetic Modification recommend a moratorium on the release of genetically modified organisms? 
Hon MARIAN HOBBS 
: No. The Government sought a 2-year moratorium on the release of genetically modified organisms to allow us time to do some of the necessary work. 
Hon Dr Nick Smith 
: Can the Minister explain why Labour while in Opposition made a huge deal with its moratorium of stopping a very small trial of a few hundred GM corn plants where every plant had to be covered in a waterproof and pollen-proof bag but just a year later turned a blind eye to an estimated 28000 GM corn plants being unknowingly planted in Marlborough Hawke’s Bay and Gisborne; and does she not now concede that the lack of testing of seeds was something of a joke and a political manoeuvre? 
Hon MARIAN HOBBS 
: The member confuses the deliberate application and the conditions set around an application for testing or growing genetically modified organisms with the inadvertent contamination through importation of some—maybe—genetically modified seed. 
Hon Brian Donnelly 
: Has the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry developed an industry code of practice to ensure effective separation distances between GE and non-GE crops as recommended by the royal commission in recommendation 7.7; if not how can her Sunday statement be accurate? 
Hon MARIAN HOBBS 
: When one takes an issue such as the code of practice around that one actually has to have somebody practising the planting of crops. What the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry has already done is talk about the distances necessary when one is producing seeds and hybrid seeds and one wants to maintain the purity of that seed which is the same sort of question that relates to genetically modified crops. 
Larry Baldock 
: Is the Minister satisfied that the passage of the New Organisms and Other Matters Bill will ensure that New Zealand’s regulatory regime is sufficiently robust to safely address applications for the commercial release of genetically modified organisms in line with the royal commission’s recommendations; if so why? 
Hon MARIAN HOBBS 
: Yes because it gives the Environmental Risk Management Authority all the necessary tools to consider each application on its merits—or demerits—to assess risks and benefits and to come to a careful decision based on all the relevant information. 
Jeanette Fitzsimons 
: How does the Government intend to address the fact that the lifting of the moratorium is likely to prevent fair resolution of some aspects of the Wai 262 claim? 
Hon MARIAN HOBBS 
: If there were an applicant who wanted to do some work on the tuatara—which would obviously impact on the Wai 262 claim—because the information is not there that would be just the kind of evidence on which I would expect either to do a call-in or to ask the authority to have people placed on it who would be able to move that some step forward. 
Dr Paul Hutchison 
: Given that the moratorium has allowed the Minister’s Government time to receive recommendations from a biotechnology strategy and a biotechnology task force report why has the Minister taken no notice of those reports when it comes to reducing red tape for medium and high risk research and why has she insisted on adding ethical cultural and spiritual matters to her call-in powers which she knows will only entangle research applications in legal wrangling and costs as it would with the Resource Management Act? 
Hon MARIAN HOBBS 
: Because that was one of the recommendations of the royal commission. 
Hon Brian Donnelly 
: Further to my earlier question has an industry code of practice around buffer zones been developed—yes or no? 
Hon MARIAN HOBBS 
: An industry code of practice for seed purity and buffer zones is in existence but it is not there for genetically modified crops because there are no genetically modified crops. So we are taking the application from— 
Rt Hon Winston Peters 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. This is a case of a Minister wasting the valuable time of parliamentarians who have a limited time and a limited number of questions to ask. The Minister was being specifically asked first by my colleague as to whether there was a code of practice and her answer was in effect: “Well there being no plantings there’s no code of practice.” That is a nonsensical statement for a start and we use up valuable time now asking whether there is a code of practice—yes or no. But she goes into a long waffling answer and we are still none the wiser after she is three-quarters of the way into it. Can we have an answer please to a very important matter? 
Mr SPEAKER 
: I wonder whether the Minister wanted to make any further comment because she has already addressed the question. 
Hon MARIAN HOBBS 
: No I do not. 
Larry Baldock 
: If at any stage it becomes apparent that more work needs to be done before a particular application for the commercial release of genetically modified organisms can safely proceed will she use her call-in powers to delay the application until such time as the necessary work is completed? 
Hon MARIAN HOBBS 
: The Environmental Risk Management Authority is required to decline applications if it does not have all the necessary information. What I have said is that I will use my call-in powers when applications have significant effects as is laid out in the law. 
Dr Ashraf Choudhary 
: What work has been done in response to the royal commission’s recommendations? 
Hon MARIAN HOBBS 
: The work completed in response to the royal commission’s recommendations includes the setting up of the Bioethics Council established in December 2002; the low-risk genetic modification regulations will come into force on the passage of the bill; Cabinet has considered papers on coexistence raised by the member opposite; economic research was completed in 2003 and has been published and is continuing; further funding was provided to the Environment Risk Management Authority to enable it to develop its framework for considering the economic implications of applications; the Biotechnology Strategy was released in May 2003; and additional funding— 
Mr SPEAKER 
: The answer was too long. Supplementary question—[ 
Interruption 
] Order! Once I have called another supplementary question anyone interjecting will leave. That is the only warning. 
Rt Hon Winston Peters 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. With respect what we have had from you is a ruling that we cannot interject but what you have just heard is unadulterated rubbish from a Minister on a critically important matter. Members who are responsible and who have experience in this House are asking serious questions. The Minister has no recall powers—but she would not answer that question. There is no code of practice—but she would not answer that question. We are none the wiser and she invites interjections. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: Please be seated. That is not relevant. I have not ruled out interjections while the Minister is speaking and the member knows it. I have ruled out interjections while questions are being asked. 
Jeanette Fitzsimons 
: What has the Government done to implement recommendation 7.3—that the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry develop a strategy to allow continued production of GM-free honey and other bee products and to avoid cross-pollination by bees of GE and GE-free crops? 
Hon MARIAN HOBBS 
: The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry is investigating the use of a geographic information system - based register of GM crops should they ever exist to mitigate the impact of flowering GM crops on bee products. 
Jeanette Fitzsimons 
: How are bee-keepers supposed to implement the ministry’s published preferred approach which is that they keep moving their hives 6 kilometres away from any GE crops when the Government seems very reluctant to divulge the location of crops and will she guarantee that this information will be available to bee-keepers who have no other option? 
Hon MARIAN HOBBS 
: I think we are at cross-purposes. The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry is actually telling me—it may be telling the honourable member something different—that it is going to have a geographic information system - based register which I presume will be available to the bee-keepers concerned but not necessarily to protesters.