GM research moratorium keeps NZ's options open
17 April 2000
GM research moratorium keeps NZ's options open
The voluntary moratorium on genetic modification
research during the Royal Commission into Genetic
Modification is designed to keep New Zealand's future
options open, says Minister for Research, Science and
Technology Pete Hodgson.
Mr Hodgson said the criteria and
conditions of the moratorium had been very carefully
developed to ensure GM experimentation while the Commission
proceeded could have no irreversible impact.
"The point
of the Commission is to help New Zealanders decide the
future of genetic modification in this country. Keeping our
options open means preventing the release of genetically
modified organisms into our environment. It also means
preventing the inadvertent destruction of our research
capacity."
Mr Hodgson said New Zealand's legislative
regime governing GM experiments and field trials – the
Hazardous Substances and New Organisms Act, administered by
the Environmental Risk Management Authority – was already
one of the strictest in the world. It included the
precautionary principle, which required caution if any risk
was uncertain because of a lack of information.
"We have
introduced even tighter controls in the moratorium in
recognition of the higher degree of assurance required while
the Royal Commission is under way. It is clear this will
prevent some experimentation that might otherwise have
proceeded. However I believe the impact will be modest,
given the strictness of the conditions already applying to
genetic modification research in New Zealand."
Mr Hodgson
said Crown Research Institutes would comply with the
moratorium. He rejected the Green Party's call for publicly
funded scientists to withdraw from all GM
research.
"Having so carefully developed the criteria and
conditions of the moratorium, the Government does not
consider that its own researchers should be subject to
stricter constraints than
others."
ENDS