Fitzsimons Jeanette: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
Fitzsimons Jeanette: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Volume:626;Page:20793] 
2.  
JEANETTE FITZSIMONS (Co-Leader—Green) 
 to the  
Minister for the Environment 
: Did New Zealand support the imposition of strict liability on manufacturers of genetically modified organisms during the meeting of parties to the Cartagena Protocol? 
Hon MARIAN HOBBS (Minister for the Environment) 
: 
 There was no such proposal at the second meeting of parties to the Cartagena Protocol which is under way in Montreal. The focus of a working group on liability and redress that met last week was mainly on process—brainstorming possible elements of a regime. New Zealand wants all options considered. 
Jeanette Fitzsimons 
: Why did New Zealand sign and ratify a protocol that has already agreed to set rules for liability and redress for damage if it now intends to undermine the treaty by suggesting that rules on liability may not be necessary? 
Hon MARIAN HOBBS 
: We suggested that the consideration—amongst another five considerations—that there be no rules for liability ought to be added in order to put it inside the tent to be considered. 
David Parker 
: Why did New Zealand sign the Cartagena Protocol? 
Hon MARIAN HOBBS 
: We signed the protocol because we are committed to comprehensive biosecurity and to countries sharing information about what is imported and what is exported. Ratification put us inside the tent allowing us to influence the development of the rules—not to sign up to the rules but to take part in the development of the rules—to protect our economic interests as an agricultural exporter. This means ensuring that rules do not become a barrier to trade. 
Jeanette Fitzsimons 
: When the Minister says she is taking into account our economic interests as an agricultural exporter is it code for a Government plan for New Zealand to become a producer and exporter of GE foods; if not how can the lack of liability possibly help exporters of non-GE products? 
Hon MARIAN HOBBS 
: No it is not code for our developing GE exports. 
David Parker 
: Would New Zealand support a strict liability regime under the protocol? 
Hon MARIAN HOBBS 
: New Zealand has a very effective domestic regime which includes general liability and penalties around breaking stipulated rules. If a similarly effective regime were proposed internationally we would be interested. 
Hon Brian Donnelly 
: Would the Minister confirm that if strict liability were to be applied to either GE or non-GE substances no new products would ever be used in New Zealand and we might as well go back to a Neolithic society—the prospect of which is cold comfort to all New Zealanders with the exception of the Greens? 
Hon MARIAN HOBBS 
: I would confirm that strict liability in an international regime might very well deter activities that are socially beneficial and would consequently stifle innovation and economic growth which is contrary to Government policy. 
Ian Ewen-Street 
: Why does the Minister believe that the New Zealand taxpayer is better able to cover the risk to our food producers from GE contamination than the worldwide insurance industry which refuses to cover such risks because a catastrophic event would be beyond its combined ability to pay for? 
Hon MARIAN HOBBS 
: The insurance industry is as I understand it equally worried about the Kyoto Protocol and about storms and in fact is very loath to take risks it cannot measure. 
Ian Ewen-Street 
: I raise a point of order Madam Speaker. I do not think the Minister made any attempt to answer my question at all. The question very specifically asked why the New Zealand taxpayer is better able to cope with the cost of a catastrophic event than the worldwide combined insurance industry. She did not address that at all. 
Madam SPEAKER 
: The Minister did address the question in the sense that she addressed the reasons why the insurance companies were not taking that risk. That was part of the member’s question. 
Jeanette Fitzsimons 
: Why in opposing strict liability is the Minister turning her back on New Zealand producers and exporters like Pacific Seeds and Sunrise Coast NZ whose market depends on their being GE free and who have already lost substantially from GE contamination outside their control; and should she not be demanding under this protocol that overseas producers that contaminate businesses here take responsibility and compensate? 
Hon MARIAN HOBBS 
: We will support our importers and exporters by ensuring the development of rules that are scientifically based. There is nothing currently in New Zealand law that prevents those New Zealand importing companies from suing the company from which they received exports.