Kedgley Sue: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers Questions to Members 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Kedgley Sue: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers Questions to Members 
[Sitting date: 15 October 2003. Volume:612;Page:9167. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
4.  
SUE KEDGLEY (Green) 
 to the  
Minister for the Environment 
: Does she stand by her statement yesterday that “People have a choice whether they eat GM food or not. Any GM food is labelled.”; if so why? 
Hon MARIAN HOBBS (Minister for the Environment) 
: 
 Yes because the statement is from my third reading speech on the legislation that came out of the New Organisms and Other Matters Bill and I stand by all the statements in that speech. 
Sue Kedgley 
: How can she claim that all GM food is labelled when vast amounts of GM food that is sold in takeaways delicatessens and restaurants do not need to be labelled nor does any GM food that contains unintentional levels of GM or that contains flavouring need to be labelled and will she therefore apologise to the House for her misleading statement yesterday; if not why not? 
Hon MARIAN HOBBS 
: I believe that the New Zealand consumer has choice within the bounds of reality—first of all that the GM presence can be proven. If there is no DNA in the food one cannot prove either that it was there or that it was not there. And within the bounds of reality in the sense that if there is any GM presence it is less than 0.1 percent that might be two drops of vanilla in a tub of ice-cream. 
Nanaia Mahuta 
: Why does the Minister think that a policy offering choice to people when it comes to genetic modification is important? 
Hon MARIAN HOBBS 
: Genetic modification is a new technology that offers many possible benefits and I think it is important we ask those questions. I reject the approach of opposing every application on the basis of some ideological belief that this research is wrong. 
Dr Paul Hutchison 
: Does she accept the advice of Lord Robert May who notes that 90 percent of the world’s wheat originates from conventionally bred irradiated wheat a very crude form of genetic modification and does she agree that the Greens will have been happily eating such wheat and growing it on their organic farms but that her Government will continue to succumb to their pressure on a case by case basis without public consultation behind closed doors? 
Hon MARIAN HOBBS 
: I cannot comment on either the eating habits or the growing habits of the Greens. 
Larry Baldock 
: Does the Minister wonder about the apparent contradiction with regard to the huge concerns and fears expressed about GM food and the fact that new plant and food varieties have been consumed and enjoyed for years across this country achieved through so-called conventional plant breeding methods that involve pollination mutation breeding cell selection and induced polyploidy which often technically achieve the same end result of a genetically modified organism? 
Hon MARIAN HOBBS 
: I do see an inconsistency in picking on one production method versus others because all foods have to undergo safety testing before they go on sale. On the other hand people should also have the right to choose what they eat which is what our policies of labelling are all about. 
Sue Kedgley 
: Can she deny that the very large amount of food that is sold in restaurants delicatessens and takeaways does not need to be labelled whether or not it is genetically engineered and how can she therefore claim that people have a choice about whether they eat GM food when so much of it is unlabelled and will she therefore apologise to the House for her misleading statement; if not why not? 
Hon MARIAN HOBBS 
: I repeat the comment I made before. I believe that New Zealanders have choice within the bounds of reality. Let us look at a restaurant and talk about the bounds of reality and consider that the restaurateur putting up a new dish has to be able to say down to 0.2 percent of the dish which part of it is from a genetically modified ingredient. In fact our regulations state that people have the right to ask the proprietor whether he or she can assure them that that new dish which he or she just put on that night contains any genetically modified ingredients and have to trust what that proprietor says. 
Sue Kedgley 
: Does the Minister agree that statements like the one she made in the House yesterday her answers today and her handling of the genetic engineering issue generally are one of the reasons why the Government’s poll ratings are dropping; if not why not? 
Hon MARIAN HOBBS 
: I could not possibly comment.