Greens looking to play supply card in 2005

By KEVIN TAYLOR political reporter

The Green Party believes Labour will do a deal on genetic modification after the next election if Prime Minister Helen Clark needs its support on confidence and supply votes.

And co-leader Jeanette Fitzsimons also believes Labour will only have itself to blame if it refuses to bargain the GM chip and ends up in opposition after the 2005 election.

The tough Green line was laid out yesterday by Ms Fitzsimons and co-leader Rod Donald, as the end of the moratorium on commercial release of GM organisms neared.

The moratorium expired at midnight last night as anti-GM groups vowed civil disobedience and direct action to stop GM projects in their tracks.

A gathering of groups in Wellington yesterday declared the start of the "people's moratorium" that would take whatever action was necessary to keep New Zealand GM free.

The Green co-leaders accused the Government of committing "economic sabotage" and called the moratorium's end Labour's biggest political miscalculation that would come back to haunt it.

Ms Fitzsimons expressed confidence New Zealand could still be kept GM free even with the moratorium gone, but Environment Minister Marian Hobbs rubbished the claim saying that by 2005 there may already be conditional releases.

Ms Fitzsimons said "progress" on the GM issue would be expected from post-election talks with Labour. The Greens had many bottom lines but it would not enter into an arrangement with Labour if no changes to GM policy were made.

"If Labour needs our support in order to keep the treasury benches they will reach an accommodation on GM - because I don't believe Helen Clark wants to go into opposition after the next election. I think it's as simple as that."

Ms Fitzsimons said if Labour refused to budge, it would only have itself to blame for going into opposition.

"If they don't negotiate with us we will not give them confidence and supply."

Meanwhile, anti-GM groups yesterday threatened direct action and proclaimed a "people's moratorium" was now in force.

One of the strongest statements came from Felicity Perry, spokeswoman for GE Free NZ, a group that has been camped on Parliament's front lawn since Monday.

She told a media conference they were forming the "People's Moratorium Enforcement Agency" and in coming months would train people in direct action.

Later the group marched through Wellington streets chanting "you plant it, we'll pull it".

They visited the offices of the Environmental Risk Management Authority, Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, and pro-GM Life Sciences Network, to deliver people's moratorium declarations.

Erma chief executive Bas Walker met the protesters and told them he did not expect "many or any" applications for commercial release in the near future.

MAF public relations staff took the group's declaration, while LSN executive director Francis Wevers refused to meet them.

At the people's moratorium launch, Greenpeace's Steve Abel said it was a direct action organisation and he accused the media of being fixated with the prospect of crop-pulling.

"I think there's no surprises here in terms of what is likely to happen if crops go in the ground."

But he said there were still many other things people could do to oppose GM before it came to that.

Mothers Against Genetic Engineering (Madge) founder Alannah Currie said while it was not their policy to destroy crops she "will be trying on gardening gloves".

Ms Hobbs told the Herald she would be horrified if there were acts of sabotage.

"It is to my mind theft and sabotage, and I think people have to be really careful. But if that's what they want to do then they will face the action of law."

Ms Hobbs warned Green leaders encouraging people to break the law that they risked being held responsible themselves.

She said that as Erma made decisions in an open and transparent way, she believed New Zealanders would come to trust the process and gain a greater understanding of the types of issues it had to consider.

Growing divisions

The GM moratorium expired at midnight last night. GMO releases must still be approved by the Environmental Risk Management Authority.

* The Green Party says if Labour needs its support on confidence and supply after the 2005 election Helen Clark will do a deal on GM - and if it doesn't Labour will only have itself to blame for being in opposition.

* Anti-GM groups threatened crop-pulling and other direct action, declaring they would do whatever was within their power to keep NZ GM-free.

Potato project misses

The Government has quietly stopped funding research on genetically modified potatoes, which had been expected to be first in the queue for farm-scale trials now that the GM moratorium has ended.

Crop and Food Research scientist Tony Conner, who has modified the potatoes to be disease-resistant, said the project missed out in the latest round of funding from the Foundation for Research, Science and Technology.

The foundation is still funding Dr Conner to investigate the possible environmental impact of GM crops, though it has stopped funding the GM work itself.

However, the foundation's portfolio manager, Dr John Smart, said the potato project missed out only because researchers bid for projects totalling $146 million from a fund for "sustainability" research that had only $57 million available.

He said the foundation would ask the Government for an extra $12 million for the fund in next year's Budget.

It will seek $5 million extra for industry sector research including GM work, $5 million extra for environmental research and $2 million extra for urban sustainability projects.

If the Government approves the request, the extra money will be available from next July.