Co-leader of the Green Party Jeanette Fitzsimons has welcomed the offer from the LifeSciences Network today to extend the voluntary moratorium on applications to release genetically engineered organisms.

"The industry has seen sense in offering to extend this moratorium on applications for commercial release and field trials of genetically engineered organisms until the Government has made a decision about where we go now," she said.

"A flood of applications before this decision has been made would be unfair not only to the public but also to the individual scientists involved.

Ms Fitzsimons said an extension to the moratorium would take some of the steam out of the pressure cooker, and give the Government a breathing space to consider the full report from the Royal Commission.

"However two months will not answer the kind of questions raised by the Commission about the effects of genetically engineered organisms on soil and ecosystems.

"A two month extension to the moratorium is only a start. Given the gaps in the current state of knowledge about this technology, it will take many more years of research to fill in the gaps identified by the Commission."

Ends

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Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

Yet now with (a) President Barack Obama weighing in on the side of artistic freedom and calling for the US to make a ‘proportionate response’quickly followed by (b) North Korea’s entire Internet service going down, and with both these events being followed by (c) Sony deciding to backtrack and release The Interview film that had made it a target for the dastardly North Koreans in the first place, then ay caramba…the whole world will now be watching how this affair pans out. More>>