Editorial: Decision on GE safeguards bizarre

As gardeners who are keen on saving our own seeds and growing nourishing food free of Genetically Engineered toxins, the Whangarei Community Gardening Group takes exception to the decision of the Northland Regional Council to reject hundreds of submissions reasonably asking for the inclusion of a strong precautionary GE provision in the NRC proposed Regional Policy Statement.

The Regional Policy Statement is the over-arching document for the next 10 years for our region, and its prime function is supposed to be the promotion of "the sustainable management of natural and physical resources".

NRC chairman Craig Brown has consistently supported the NRC placing a strong precautionary provision in the NRC's new RPS, in keeping with the council's own precautionary GE policy in the Long Term Council Community Plan. He also recognises the risks of GMOs to our biosecurity, unique biodiversity, primary producers and economy.

How some NRC staff could possibly make the bizarre decision they have on the GE issue is a mystery, making no logical sense.

Interestingly, NRC councillor Ian Walker is president of "Farmers of NZ" (the only submission on the GE issue upheld by NRC staff) and the chairman of the NRC Regional Policy Committee. Cr Walker has consistently tried to "disappear" the GE issue, even blocking our local district council (WDC) from tabling a GE supplementary agenda item. This is not on and in our view is a conflict of interest, which by law has to be declared by Cr Walker.

A conflict of interest in the NRC Code of Conduct is where elected members do not maintain a clear separation between their personal interests and their duties as an elected member. This is to ensure that people who fill positions of authority carry on their duties free from bias (whether real or perceived). Cr Walker needs to familiarise himself with the provisions of the Local Authorities Act 1968 relating to conflicts of interest.

Not surprisingly, a visit to the Farmers of NZ website shows the lead story is pro GE. The NRC Code of Conduct clearly states that if a member is in any doubt as to whether or not a particular course of action raises a conflict of interest, then the member should, in a case of doubt, withdraw.

Our job now as the Whangarei Community Gardening Group is to (when speaking to our submissions) critique the various errors of fact in the staff section 42A report on GE. We will do our best to draw the attention of the independent commissioners to such errors at the formal RPS hearings over the next month.

As gardeners, beekeepers, foresters, farmers, we say no to the outdoor use of GMOs. We hope that the Regional Council will be forced to do the right thing, and support (through wording in the new RPS) the district councils of Northland's effort to stop the outdoor use of GMOs in our region.

James Bellamy is spokesperson for the Whangarei Community Gardening Group