GE report likely to stir Greens

By SIMON COLLINS

The Government faces a possible showdown with the Green Party next month after yesterday's report of the Royal Commission on Genetic Modification.

The commission's four-volume report, which will be made public on Monday, is expected to give a cautious go-ahead to restricted use of genetic engineering in agriculture.

The Greens, whose seven MPs hold the balance of power in Parliament, are strongly opposed to allowing any genetic modification outside the laboratory.

Green co-leader Jeanette Fitzsimons indicated yesterday that the party was unlikely to withdraw its support for the Labour/Alliance Government on confidence votes even if the Government approved controlled genetic engineering.

"The Green Party has absolutely no contingency plans for an early election," she said.

But Green health spokeswoman Sue Kedgley, a leading campaigner against GE food, said the party would have to consider whether it could continue to support Labour if genetic engineering was allowed.

"It is something that we would have to think about extremely carefully," she said. "It is one of our core issues, it is something that we all feel absolutely passionately about."

The sensitivity of the issue was demonstrated yesterday when members of the pro-GE Life Sciences Network protested to the Prime Minister about the Government's decision to give a copy of the royal commission report to the Greens several hours before it is released publicly.

A spokesman for Helen Clark replied: "The Greens are a party that supports the Government and it's not unusual for them to be given preferential treatment."

But Dr William Rolleston of the Life Sciences Network said the decision "makes it look as though the Government has decided it doesn't want a balanced debate".

The Government has also rejected a request from the Life Sciences Network to be allowed to take part in the media "lockup" which will give journalists up to an hour to read the report before Helen Clark's press conference on Monday afternoon.

Although financial analysts have their own lockup before release of the annual Budget, Helen Clark's spokesman said it was not usual to hold analysts' lockups for other events.

The contents of the report were still a closely guarded secret last night, and Ms Fitzsimons said she could not understand why there seemed to be "a sudden consensus" that the report would give a restricted go-ahead to genetic modification. She noted that so far no genetically modified crops had been approved in New Zealand.

"A recommendation that we should proceed cautiously to release genetically engineered crops for planting, or to approve GE pine trees for commercial release, is actually taking us a giant step closer to a GE future," she said.

"I don't sense that that's where the balance of forces lies at all."

Former Chief Justice Sir Thomas Eichelbaum, who chaired the royal commission, is remembered for abolishing wigs in court and is regarded as relatively liberal. He is said to have been "fastidious" in checking every word in the 1500-page report, and to have been its main writer.

The only scientist on the four-person commission, Dr Jean Fleming, is a biologist who convened the 1993 Women's Suffrage Centennial Science Conference. She is said to have asked many questions at the hearings and is expected to support limited genetic engineering.

The Anglican Dean of Auckland, the Very Rev Richard Randerson, appointed to provide an ethical perspective, is seen as the commission's most likely Green supporter.

The fourth member, Papakura GP Dr Jacqueline Allan, is described as "a maverick who doesn't always follow the expected channel". She has Ngai Tahu tribal links and spoke up for a Maori perspective, but Maori groups making submissions were divided on the key issues.

A spokesman for Alliance leader and Deputy Prime Minister Jim Anderton said Alliance MPs would not necessarily join the Greens in rejecting any genetic engineering outside the laboratory.

"We are looking for the royal commission to sort out a lot of these issues."

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