March 1, 2001
The Environmental Risk Management Authority is due to make submissions to the Royal Commission on Genetic Modification today. The presentation will be made by the Authority's Deputy Chair Dr Oliver Sutherland and ERMA New Zealand Chief Executive Dr Bas Walker. Further witnesses are staff scientist Dr Donald Hannah and Dr Mere Roberts, of the Authority's Maori advisory committee, Nga Kaihautu Tikanga Taiao.
The key points of the ERMA New Zealand submission are as follows:
- all GMO applications received by the Authority to date have been for laboratory development or field trials and have been approved under very strict containment conditions. There have been no applications for the release of a GMO into the environment;
- the current approach to managing GMOs in New Zealand, (including the 'risk management' framework followed by the Authority under the HSNO Act), is sound and should continue. However some additional tools are needed, including government policy statements, to clarify matters of public interest. Social, cultural and to some extent moral concerns would be better dealt with by the government than by the Authority;
- ERMA is recommending minor changes to the Act including:
- grouping some types of GMO applications according to their generic risk and the level of containment;
- giving the Authority more discretion over which applications to publicly notify;
- and allowing it to impose controls (containment measures) on any GMO releases. It would also like to see a less bureaucratic process for approving low risk GM work in contained laboratories, so that experiments do not all have to be considered individually;
- the Authority is calling for greater funding to monitor the effects
of GMO activities over time. It would like to see more research on generic
issues such as:
- horizontal gene transfer;
- the effects of insect and herbicide resistant genes
- the use of viral promoter genes;
- allergenic effects of proteins expressed by transgenes;
- and the potential of transgenes to express prions;
- the Authority also says there should be greater public education on GM issues.
In its presentation, the Authority will re affirm its commitment to incorporating Maori perspectives in decision making, but emphasises the challenges in doing this.
The presentation will also include comment on the importation of GM contaminated seed. ERMA supports the Government's recent move to tighten up border surveillance but notes that, even so, GM contaminated seeds could still enter the country. The Authority's submission traverses the implications of this for environmental risk management and for its role under the HSNO Act.
ERMA is one of 117 organisations granted Interested Person status and will be the last to appear before the Commission.
The submission and witness briefs are posted on the ERMA New Zealand website under News and Issues (Focus pages). Notes from the presentation made to the Commission on the 1 March will be posted at the end day (around 4.30pm).
To access more information go to the "focus" page on the Royal Commission.
Contact:
Karen Cronin,
Communications Manager,
Phone: +64 4 918 4826.