ACT Science and Technology Spokesman Ken Shirley says the Government has been handed a lifeline by the biotechnology industry and must ensure that it resolves wrangles within Cabinet and develops clear legislative measures by the end of the renewed voluntary moratorium on GM field trials.

"We're disappointed that the moratorium has been extended. The Royal Commission gave field trials the green light and we want to see barriers against them removed.

"But equally, it is clear the Government's in a mess on this issue. It's under huge pressure from the fundamentalist Greens and there's obviously division within its own ranks.

"The New Zealand Life Sciences Network, representing the biotechnology industry, has made a pragmatic choice in offering to extend the moratorium ' deciding it would rather try and work with, rather than against the Government.

"It is now up to the Government to get its act together, to work with industry and come up with sensible proposals within the new time frame. The industry deserves that after the patient, tolerant approach it has adopted.

"The Government now needs to move expeditiously on this. A further extension beyond October of the moratorium cannot and must not be even contemplated. In addition, the Government needs to ensure that the process is not subverted by extremist elements from the Greens and its own ranks," Ken Shirley said.

Ends

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