Ewen-Street Ian: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
Ewen-Street Ian: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Volume:627;Page:22130] 
12.  
IAN EWEN-STREET (Green) 
 to the  
Minister of Agriculture 
: When did the Government obtain a copy of the positive GM contamination test announced yesterday and what does it say? 
Hon JIM SUTTON (Minister of Agriculture) 
: 
 The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry was alerted to the positive test result on Monday. However that screening test is only a basic one and further testing is required in order to get information about the GM presence. Hopefully that testing will be available within a couple of weeks. 
Ian Ewen-Street 
: When did the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry first hear about the contamination and why did it take so long for the test certificate to be provided to the Government? 
Hon JIM SUTTON 
: The industry participants have provided the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry with assurances that the grain is voluntarily embargoed. The industry has amply demonstrated its integrity in that regard. The ministry issued biosecurity directions on Wednesday to secure the grain after necessary legal procedures. 
David Parker 
: Do we have systems in place to deal with this situation? 
Hon JIM SUTTON 
: We certainly do. I have confidence in the work of our officials. After all we have dealt with adventitious GM presence in maize previously on several occasions. 
Hon Brian Donnelly 
: Does the Minister stand by his statement made on television last night that New Zealanders opposed to GE do not mind eating a little bit of GE food? 
Hon JIM SUTTON 
: That comment was made in a somewhat different context. I must say that the law of the land allows for zero tolerance of unauthorised GM material and that law is the one we are enforcing. 
Ian Ewen-Street 
: Is the Government now willing to act on the unanimous recommendation of the select committee inquiry into “corngate” that legislation be passed to require testing laboratories to immediately make available any test certificate when requested to do so by the Government? 
Hon JIM SUTTON 
: The Government sees no need for such a requirement. The industry has demonstrated its complete responsibility and we do not think it is right that we should treat it as though it were a public enemy. 
Ian Ewen-Street 
: Is the Government willing to admit yet that there will continue to be regular contamination events unless we have a liability regime that holds the GE patent holder or the importer of the seed liable for all costs caused by the contamination; if not why not? 
Hon JIM SUTTON 
: As I said the Government does not see any merit in treating the people involved in a situation like this as public enemies when they have demonstrated good faith and their responsibility. We will continue to try to tighten up the controls to prevent any unauthorised GM material entering New Zealand but members must realise that we are operating on the very limit of detectability at the lower end. So it is that one can never rule out another such incident. 
Ian Ewen-Street 
: Does the Minister agree with the comments of Hugh Ritchie of Federated Farmers that our overseas markets for maize rely on our GE-free status and that ongoing contamination scares would be damaging to our reputation; if not why not? 
Hon JIM SUTTON 
: New Zealand is not a significant exporter of maize but nevertheless we have a very high-integrity system for authorising or certifying the content of what we export. We will continue to the best of our scientific ability to make sure that that remains of high reputation. 
Ian Ewen-Street 
: Can the Minister name one GE food product that can be grown in New Zealand for which there is any demand in any of our major export markets; if so what is that food and what is the demand? 
Hon JIM SUTTON 
: To the best of my knowledge there are no GM foods produced in New Zealand or no foods produced from GM plants grown in New Zealand. Almost all the GM technology employed commercially around the world so far—all 80 million hectares or so of GM crops—are types of crops that are not commonly grown in New Zealand at all.