The Health Select committee received 15000 submissions to the Gene Technology Bill, a majority are calling for the Bill to be withdrawn.

"This is an overwhelmingly significant public response considering the submission period was over Christmas and the New Year,” said Claire Bleakley, president of GE Free NZ "Especially as the deadline of 17 February allowed only 4 weeks, after considering weekends, annuals and holidays.

Yet the select committee stage of the process is designed to silence many of those voices.

The Gene Technology Bill intends to

• Exempt new gene edited organisms (GE) from risk evaluation and from the traceability needed for food safety and consumer labelling.
• It threatens to destroy New Zealand’s GE-free export reputation and lose the economy $20 Billion annually by making New Zealand’s legislation on genetically engineered/gene edited organisms the most permissive in the world.
• The Bill removes precaution at the national and local level.
• It excludes consideration of ethics and costs and benefits
• It removes the ability for communities to call on Regional and Local Councils to implement precautionary rules and policies on GE

Despite these dramatic changes, The Health Select Committee are only hearing from 400 submitters of the 900 who requested to speak in a total of 45 hours in March.

"Submitters have shown they are against this Bill and want to voice their reasons. It is a breach of their democratic right to filter out 45% of these voices. They must be heard even if it is inconvenient for the government timeline,"

The Health Select Committee will be divided into two groups with Sam Uffindell and Dr. Hamish Campbell as the respective chairs.

The National and Act party have been promoting a free trade deal with the US since the last election. When the TPPA was being signed Wikileaks released discussions between the US and NZ saying the top impediments in concluding an agreement was that Monsanto /Bayer "did not like New Zealand's genetically modified organism (GMO) regulations." (cl4)

"The rush to pass this legislation, the limited number of submitters being allowed to speak and the short time they have been given, is suggestive of there being another agenda in the pipeline." said Claire Bleakley, president of GE Free NZ.

"Could this be that negotiations for US biotech deals are being finalised, but only if we remove any fishhooks for investment?" said Bleakley

GE Free New Zealand made a substantive submission opposing the Bill exemptions and supports the existing legislation in favour of keeping GE fully regulated.

References:

[1] https://www.parliament.nz/en/pb/sc/committees-press-releases/gene-technology-bill-submissions-received-and-schedule-of-hearings/

[2] https://wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/10WELLINGTON65_a.html

[3] https://www.gefree.org.nz/assets/Uploads/GE-Free-NZ-submission-to-Gene-Technology-Bill-2025.pdf

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