GE Free NZ has asked the Minister of Science, Innovation and Technology, Shane Reti, to use his professional understanding to guide “Minister Sam Uffindell” through the challenges to health that the Gene Technology Bill poses.
The press statement has erred: Mr Uffindell is not a Minister. He is chair of Parliament’s Health Select Committee.
The Bill was referred to that committee after the first reading debate in Parliament in December.
GE Free New Zealand has asked Dr Reti to extend the timeframe by two weeks and allow more time for submitters.
In a press statement today, GE Free New Zealand president Claire Bleakley, said:
“As a Doctor of Medicine Dr Reti will understand the complexities of individuals and the importance of properly testing pharmaceuticals. All pharmaceutical drugs must go through clinical trials and this includes all new recombinant or genetically engineered (GE) organisms. He will understand the importance that a safe diet has on health.”
The Gene Technology Bill allows deregulation and exemption on gene edited food plants that introduce changes for tolerance to pesticides or produce insecticidal toxins and could even produce pharmaceuticals in plants, Claire Bleakley said.
A GE plant or animal approved by two overseas regulators is to be deemed acceptable for automatic approval to release in New Zealand. The protections in the HSNO Act should be maintained instead, she said.
“Over the years Governments have eroded the risk management and the extremely complex and permissive Gene Technology Bill is ignoring all risk factors to the environment and health by exempting GE organisms.
“This Bill takes away all safety requirements for exempted GE and must be given time for submitters to fully understand the risky consequences.”
The submission timeline is narrow, only 30 working days, if statutory, weekends and annual holidays are factored in, and submissions close on 17 February.
“This is the reason we have asked for a two week extension to help submitters understand and make informed submissions,” said Ms Bleakley.
Judith Collins was Science, Innovation and Technology Minister when the Gene Technology Bill was introduced to Parliament.
Moving that the Bill be read for a first time, she said:
“Our current regulations for genetically modified organisms are some of the most backward looking in the world. New Zealand has lagged behind other countries, such as Australia, Canada, and England, which have safely embraced these technologies for the benefit of their people and their economies.
“Despite gene technologies having been in use in New Zealand since the 1970s, the restrictive rules and time-consuming processes we have imposed on researchers have made testing and embracing innovation outside the lab all but impossible. But no more. This Government has listened to our research, primary industry, and medical communities and the frustrations that they have felt over many years. Today, New Zealand moves into the present with a safe enabling regulatory regime. The legislation will enable the sorts of innovation that will benefit New Zealand while effectively managing risks to the health and safety of people and the environment.
“Instead of continuing to frustrate, we want to enable New Zealand’s biotech ecosystem to attract and retain the brightest minds so that we can deliver solutions to the challenges New Zealand faces, such as climate change, such as increasing the productivity of our primary sector, such as conservation, such as human health—potential cancer cures. From advances in health treatments in our hospitals to supporting our farmers to produce the best food in the world, the transformative path of innovation is key to our country’s future and key to making New Zealander’s lives better.”
Ms Collins said New Zealand scientists would no longer be confined to petri dishes, “instead having a chance to get their amazing technology approved for use outside the lab, and the New Zealand economy reaping the benefits of that.
“Think of genetically edited apples that take one year to grow, fruit, and produce, rather than the five to seven years of other apples. Think how useful that would have been after Cyclone Gabrielle decimated so much of the Hawke’s Bay horticulture. I’ve seen this in one of our labs in a Crown research institute already being done here, but they can’t take it out the lab.
“We already have the science to do all of this, and these are the productivity tools. If we use them, they will save family businesses and they will save livelihoods. This is a wonderful day for science, and I encourage all New Zealanders to engage in what gene technology can do for them.”
Ms Collins said a defining moment in the development of GE technologies had been the invention of the ability to precisely edit individual genes. The CRISPR process – announced in 2012 – had changed everything, because it meant scientists were not splicing together genes from different species but we’re editing existing genes.
GE Free New Zealand’s references
[1] https://www.beehive.govt.nz/minister/biography/shane-reti
[2] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK546595/
[3] https://www.gefree.org.nz/assets/pdf/GE-Animals-in-New-Zealand.pdf
[4] https://www.scionresearch.com/science/genetic-engineering
Sources: GE Free New Zealand and Hansard.
