Dirty tricks call as defector flies to GM inquiry

A former founder of Greenpeace who has since become a vocal critic of environmentalists is being paid to come to New Zealand to testify before the Royal Commission on Genetic Modification.

Greenpeace is accusing the pro-GE Life Sciences Network of using "dirty tactics" by flying Dr Patrick Moore from Canada to appear before the commission this month.

"Moore has no credibility in respect of genetic engineering," said Greenpeace spokeswoman Annette Cotter.

"The sole purpose in bringing him here seems to be to paint the environmental movement in an unsavoury light."

After almost 10 years at the forefront of high-profile Greenpeace campaigns on whaling and sealing, Dr Moore defected to become an outspoken supporter of clearfelling forests in British Columbia.

He has so enraged environmental groups that they have devoted a website to him, which includes personal attacks.

Dr Moore left Greenpeace in 1984 after what the organisation calls "internal disagreements," and set up an alternative environmental group called Greenspirit.

The 53-year-old has said the GE debate is being influenced by "pagan beliefs and junk science," and believes the tide is turning against the "anti-science extremist element" among environmentalists.

Life Sciences executive director Francis Wevers defended bringing Dr Moore here by saying the GE debate was not just about science.

"It's an ethical issue, it's an economic issue . . . and Patrick Moore has been saying important things about this debate for a long time."

The network, an umbrella organisation of at least 30 industry and science groups that support genetic engineering, was paying airfares, accommodation and "a very small grant" to bring nine overseas witnesses here, Mr Wevers said.

"You can't expect people to take that sort of time and not pay them something."

The organisation's budget for the hearings was "internal information," he said.

Network membership cost $3500 a year.

Ms Cotter said Life Sciences was "throwing huge resources and time" into the hearings.

"It seems the burden of proof is on the anti-GE groups. There's no way we can compete with the kind of resources they have," she said.

Greenpeace was bringing four expert witnesses from overseas and was paying airfares and accommodation for three of them.

The commission has been asked by the Government to investigate where New Zealand should stand on genetic technology and must deliver its report by next June.

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