Fitzsimons Jeanette: General Debates 
Fitzsimons Jeanette: General Debates 
[Volume:611;Page:8121] 
JEANETTE FITZSIMONS (Co-Leader—Green) 
: 
 I move  
That the House take note of miscellaneous business 
. Sixty-eight percent of New Zealanders have now got the point and they are wondering when the Government will get the point. A long time ago they gave up expecting that the Opposition would ever get the point but most of them are Labour Party voters and they still hope that their Government will get the point. Sixty-eight percent of New Zealanders do not want the moratorium on the release of genetically engineered crops and animals lifted in October. Sixty-eight percent of them say it is much too soon and we do not know enough. What is more 38 percent say they should be banned for good. 
That is a poll from the  
New Zealand Herald 
. For 5 years the  
New Zealand Herald 
 has been calling me a Luddite and the Greens anti-science because of the issues we have raised about genetic engineering. Suddenly the  
New Zealand Herald 
 has got the point and its front page every day this week has been about the risks of genetic engineering to our economy health and environment. 
 The chief executive of the Royal Society of New Zealand New Zealand’s premier science institution has got the point. He states in the  
New Zealand Herald 
: “We can now tamper with creation. It is indeed exciting awe-inspiring and potentially terrifying.” That is the terror that this Government wants to impose on the rest of New Zealand. 
Reports are that Tony Blair is getting the point. The London  
Independent 
 reports that Tony Blair is dramatically scaling back his plans to open up UK farms to widespread planting of genetically modified crops. He is faced with unwavering public opposition and two recent Government reports were highly embarrassing for the Blair Government. One stated that growing genetically engineered (GE) crops would provide no benefit to the economy and the other that it would be impossible to grow some GE crops without contaminating organic products. 
Our big export industries have got the point. “Export giants call for go slow on GM” states the  
New Zealand Herald 
. Zespri which presented to the select committee and adds $850 million a year and 25000 jobs to the New Zealand economy stated: “Our position is that no GMOs should be released into New Zealand until the risks of this are better understood.” 
Many councils are starting to get the point. The  
New Zealand Herald 
 also reports that a number of councils are looking at what legal avenues they have in order to respond to the wishes of their citizens to keep GE crops and animals out of their areas. 
The  
New Zealand Herald 
 has been printing letters from readers. The letters are running at about ten to one in favour of keeping the moratorium in place. I will read some excerpts: “If two-thirds of our population is against GM then the moratorium has to be extended. It’s as simple as that.” writes one couple. “There is a very good reason insurance companies are refusing to insure experimental or commercial trials of GE crops.” points out another. A grandmother writes: “My feelings are not based on hysteria or a fear of progress but the many warnings coming from within the scientific community itself over many years.” 
Here is one member of the scientific community a New Zealander who reads the  
New 
Zealand Herald 
 on the web because he is currently running a GE laboratory in the United States. He writes: “We use and generate genetically engineered organisms (GEOs) in our research. Until phrases like ‘proceeding with caution’ ‘strict controls’ and ‘robust science’”—the Government phrases—“carry some specific meaning with respect to GEOs lifting the GE moratorium in New Zealand defies logic and appears to be nothing more than politics as usual.”