Browning Steffan: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers Questions to MembersText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeBrowning Steffan: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers Questions to Members[Sitting date: 25 June 2013. Volume:691;Page:11187. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]10.STEFFAN BROWNING (Green)to theMinister for the Environment: Will she be changing the law to restrict councils’ ability to regulate the release of genetically modified organisms in their regions; if so what are the proposed changes?Hon AMY ADAMS (Minister for the Environment):The regulation of the release of genetically modified organisms is and has for more than 15 years been regulated at a national level by the Environmental Protection Authority under the Hazardous Substances and New Organisms Act. I am concerned at indications that some councils are seeking to rewrite what is a nationally set regulatory framework and accordingly it is my intention to progress an amendment to the Resource Management Act to clarify the respective functions and roles of the Environmental Protection Authority and local government in this regard. Communities can be confident that the Hazardous Substances and New Organisms Act provides a robust system of controls and a very high bar for the entry of GMOs into New Zealand.Steffan Browning: Why has the Government’s position changed since Nick Smith wrote to the councils in 2010 saying that it would not change the law to put in place protections but that “this does not preclude a council from restricting or preventing the use of GMOs in their region”? Why has it changed?Hon AMY ADAMS: Actually the position of the Government and the ministry has been consistent in this regard for some years and I would refer the member to Crown Law advice that the ministry has put on its website from 2003 and 2004 repeating its consistent position that it is not a good idea for councils to be regulating GMOs under their plans and that there are serious legal uncertainties as to how well that would work—[Interruption ]Mr SPEAKER: Order!Steffan Browning: I seek leave to table a letter from Nick Smith to the Inter-council Working Party on GMO Risk Evaluation and Management Options. It is dated 5 August 2010 and it shows—Mr SPEAKER: That is enough information. Leave is sought to table that letter. Is there any objection? There is not. It can be tabled.Document by leave laid on the Table of the House.Steffan Browning: Given that the Northland and Auckland councils’ decisions to put in place protections are based on 10 years of investigation and evaluation about how to protect their ratepayers how can she justify threatening to swoop in and override their rights and responsibilities just because it suits the GE agenda of this Government?Hon AMY ADAMS: Well I can assure that member that local councils are local councils. They operate under the national framework. There has never been the ability for them to rewrite national rules that they do not like. If councils have concerns about the way the GM regulation in New Zealand works they should raise those with the Environmental Protection Authority and attempt to address the regulation on a national basis. They should not set up their own independent states where they write their own rules and ignore the national framework.