Browning Steffan: Debate on Prime Minister’s StatementText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeBrowning Steffan: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement[Sitting date: 30 January 2014. Volume:696;Page:15726. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]STEFFAN BROWNING (Green): This year we are looking forward to a change in Government but there are things this Government can do ahead of that and one of those is to actually meet its obligations in terms of GE food labelling.For 10 years Governments have either not monitored or not enforced the rules around the labelling of genetically engineered foods and because of that consumers have not had choice. We want that choice. We want GE foods labelled. It is actually on the Ministry of Primary Industry’s website—the actual requirements when it is required when there is discretion and the range of coverage is in there. But what have these Governments done? What has this Government done? It has missed it. It has been brought to its attention and it has still missed it. The reason why it is so critical that people should have choice is that there are toxins in genetically engineered food. Just by the sheer nature of the genetic engineering there are toxins in there. The two main—Simon O’Connor: What a load of rubbish. Go and read a science book. Go and do Science 101.STEFFAN BROWNING: Can you please just quieten down for a while there?Hon Member: Come back to Mother Earth.STEFFAN BROWNING: I was waiting for the Assistant Speaker to intervene maybe. Toxins in GE food—there are two main types. They are resistant to insects in one case. If that is the case you have gotBacillus thuringiensis toxins in there. The Cry gene is inserted in there and by the very nature of that genetic engineering theBacillus thuringiensis toxin is throughout that plant. It goes right through into the food that is harvested and consumed by people and we now know that it goes right through into foetal blood. It does not just go through the digestive system and get spat out. No it does not; it is getting absorbed and that is a toxin that we do not want in that form.The other one in particular that is well-known isglyphosate.Glyphosate has been used heavily on genetically engineered soy and other crops because they are herbicide-resistant to make it easier for farmers to dodge some cultivation and other forms ofweed control. But since when do we want our food doused with a herbicide when we know that that food is going to have far more of that herbicide in it right through to harvest right through processing right into the kitchen and into the food of our children and ourselves? We need to be able to choose whether we have that food or not. There is a 2½ times greater use of these herbicides on genetically engineered crops. I want to choose and most New Zealanders do.Out of something like 60 applications for genetically engineered lines that Food Standards Australia New Zealand considers on behalf of Australia and New Zealand there are more than 85 lines that have been approved. That is for soybean canolalucerne corn sugar beet rice potato and cotton—over 80. There are some fresh ones in the pipeline sitting there waiting at the moment. Another one is canola—again herbicide-resistant toglyphosate. There are more. There is another one for theBacillusthuringiensis toxin to go right through soybeans. We are using a huge amount more of soy in New Zealand than we ever ever did before and it is totally pervasive through the food supply. We deserve to have that food labelled if it has got GE in it.The real concern of course is even the new ones that have resistance to three different herbicides such as 24-D. I do not want food sprayed with 24-Dglyphosate orglufosinate-ammonium but that is what is being ticked through and rubber-stamped. This Government has not done anything about monitoring and enforcing the labelling that its own Ministry for Primary Industries is meant to do. The Greens will ensure this happens. Thank you.