Corn inquiry MPs split on party lines

By KEVIN TAYLOR


Each side has claimed victory after an exhaustive parliamentary inquiry into the "Corngate" affair.

But MPs from all parties have unanimously cleared ministers of interfering in the scientific decision about whether corn under scrutiny in late 2000 contained GM material.

The local government and environment select committee yesterday released a 250-page report following its two-year inquiry. MPs were divided six-all and delivered two sets of conclusions - with Labour and United Future on one side and the Greens, National, New Zealand First, and Act on the other.

The committee launched the inquiry after Wellington author Nicky Hager's controversial book Seeds of Distrust was released in the heat of the 2002 election campaign.

He alleged the Government covered up the discovery of a shipment of possibly GM-contaminated imported sweetcorn seeds.

The law was broken, Mr Hager claimed, because officials invented a tolerance level to GM contamination in breach of the Hazardous Substances and New Organisms Act.

Last year a memo from Prime Minister Helen Clark's department surfaced that National claimed should have been released with the rest of the Corngate documents during the election campaign.

National said the memo, from former department official Ruth Wilkie, showed the Prime Minister had been more deeply involved in the issue than she admitted, and its release during the election campaign would have been politically damaging.

The Labour and United Future MPs on the committee concluded there was never reliable evidence of GM contamination - so there was nothing to cover up.

Opposition parties concluded that although presence of GM in the corn could be "neither proven nor disproved", results from Melbourne lab GeneScan that the seeds were contaminated should either have been accepted or further tests conducted.

Greens co-leader and committee chairwoman Jeanette Fitzsimons said the inquiry had convinced her officials had introduced a contamination tolerance level to justify taking no action.

She said the inquiry had been "seriously hindered" by bio-tech company Syngenta's refusal to allow the committee to question GeneScan. Syngenta (then known as Novartis) imported the seed from America.

"I am sure that if Syngenta thought that the GeneScan data would have led us to the conclusion that the corn was not contaminated, they would have allowed us access."

Mr Hager was "thrilled" opposition MPs had confirmed most of his allegations.

National environment spokesman Nick Smith said Labour members of the committee had been more interested in protecting Helen Clark than finding the truth.

But committee deputy chairman David Parker said the report dispelled Mr Hager's "conspiracy theory". He said the underlying claim at the last election was ministers had been complicit in a decision to let GM corn be grown, harvested and eaten, and then covered it up.

The committee made 10 recommendations, including that the Government continue to reject any seed at the border that contains any GM seed, no matter how low the level.


Corn contamination or not?


Q: What was Corngate about?

A: Claims the Government covered up possible GM contamination of imported sweetcorn planted in 2000 with officials inventing a tolerance level breaching the Hazardous Substances and New Organisms Act.

Q: Did the corn contain GM material?

A: This has never been satisfactorily answered. The Greens, National, NZ First and Act conclude in the select committee report out yesterday that can neither be "proven nor disproven" on the evidence, but officials should have accepted Melbourne laboratory GeneScan's conclusion the seeds were contaminated or conducted further tests.

Labour and United Future say there is no proof of contamination.

GeneScan - now in Government ownership - found three of five samples of the seed had an indicator of GM material and in subsequent unfinished testing some level of contamination by BT11 - a certain type of GM sweetcorn. But the tests were never completed.

Q: Did the Government accept an illegal tolerance for GM contamination?

A: That depends on whether the corn was contaminated. Labour and United Future say because there was no good evidence of contamination, nothing illegal occurred.

But the Greens and the other political parties cite officials' documents which talk about a 0.5 per cent tolerance level to GM contamination. Other documents cite official concerns that any permissible contamination level would breach the HSNO Act.

Q: Has anything improved since then?

A: It appears so. The committee unanimously noted enforcement responsibilities between agencies had been clarified, qualified staff had been appointed to MAF, and three labs had been certified for seed testing.