GM: Is it too soon?: Managing the risk

The Minister in charge of New Zealand's GM policy is Marian Hobbs, Minister for the Environment. CATHERINE MASTERS talked to her.

Q. Why is the Government so determined to end the moratorium?

A. We did a process when we came in as Government in 1999. We realised there were some in the community really anxious about this issue.

We set up at the cost of $6 million ... a royal commission that did 10,000 submissions up and down the country ... and they came back ... and said ... the Erma, the authority that makes the decisions and runs that process, is good, go ahead but go very cautiously and take your time over it.

Q. Public opposition is growing. Why is the Government prepared to ignore it?

A. Well, because the Government has actually done the job. One of the things I find really irritating, I met a leader of a sustainability council, I said to him [Sir Peter Elworthy], 'Did you make a submission to the royal commission?'

He said, 'I wasn't interested in the subject then'. Well I find that really irritating. What do we do? Wait until everyone gets interested before we hold a royal commission?

Q. What controls are in place to ensure there will be no disasters?

A. You have to put up a case. That case has to be heard in public, pros and cons ... I think at the moment it would be very rare for a full release to be granted by Erma ... The conditions they might set [if it was fir trees] would be, 'You're not going to do this experiment right in the middle of a pine plantation. You're going to do it in a place where it's suitable for growing pines but not where there are other pine plantations around'.

They might also say things to you like, 'This experiment can only last up to the time that it produces cones and just before it, so you limit the potential of spread'.

Q. One of the concerns people have is that if it goes wrong it is too late.

A. I would say there are some people in life who do not want to take any risks whatsoever, they're utterly risk adverse.

Some things are about managing the risk and trying to limit the risk. In this area we're into management of risk or limitation of risk ... as a descendant of people who risked their lives and got into small boats and went from Ireland to New Zealand, I am not going to say ever, 'Thou shalt not take any risks'.

Q. Are you happy to eat GM products?

A. Like everyone else in New Zealand I can have the choice as to whether I eat a genetically modified product or not. Um, I don't know, I travel quite a lot, I probably have ingested it and not known it.

I'd say I'd have hell of a lot more fears about some of the chemicals on our things.

I don't, for instance, take pills for menopause, I don't take any of those things, I'm quite careful about what I put in my body but I'm not necessarily ... Now, for instance, there is a cholera medicine that's given out that has a live organism in it. People take that to prevent cholera ... people are quite happy to take things for medicines.

Q. Are we going to end up with two-headed frogs?

A. Doubt it ... I mean 70 per cent of a banana is the same genetics as we've got. That's why some of that stuff I find, and I'm not a scientist, but some of that stuff I find child book frightening and I don't think adds to mature debate.