Interest high as GE study panel hands over report

By ANNE BESTON environment reporter

The four-volume report on genetic engineering goes to the Government today as supporters and opponents of the technology gear up for a day of activity.

After almost five months of deliberations, the chairman of the Royal Commission on Genetic Modification, Sir Thomas Eichelbaum, will hand the report to the Governor-General, Dame Silvia Cartwright, in Wellington.

The report, which is 1500 pages long and cost about $5 million, is due to be publicly released after Monday's cabinet meeting.

Both sides in the gene debate have squared off for months and the acrimony showed no sign of lessening on the eve of the report's handover.

Federated Farmers and other pro-GE groups were yesterday contacting Prime Minister Helen Clark to express their anger that the anti-GE Green Party will get an early peek at the closely guarded report.

"We are very unhappy about it. All groups should get the same chance to hear the same information at the same time," Federated Farmers national president Alistair Polson said.

Like Federated Farmers and other interested groups, the Greens had "interested persons" status before the commission because they chose to register their interest.

They were the only political party to do so.

Mr Polson said that while the Greens were "sort of" in Government, they should still be treated the same as any other group.

A Green Party spokesman said it was unclear when the party would get the report. The Greens were more focused on what would be in it than when they would get a first look.

But while the report is expected to adopt a proceed-with-caution approach to the new gene technology, it could end up pleasing no one.

On the pro-GE side, scientists, researchers and people with genetic diseases were just some of the witnesses who appeared before the commission to argue for a biotech future.

"I hope they might make some suggestions on reducing the cost of low-risk GM work," said Dr William Rolleston, chair of an umbrella group of pro-GE industries called the Life Sciences Network.

One of the most difficult issues the commission had to come to terms with was that many Maori regard genetic engineering as culturally offensive and want it banned.

"I think the Maori issue will be significant," Dr Rolleston said.

He did not expect the commission to back a veto of GE and was in no doubt what would happen if it did.

"Scientists would vote with their feet."

Greenpeace was one of the largest groups on the anti-GE side. Although the organisation has always said it does not object to genetic engineering work being done in the laboratory, it wants a veto on genetically engineered organisms being released into the environment.

"More and more markets are demanding GE-free products and that's where the economics seem to be. But like everyone else we're in wait-and-see mode," said Annette Cotter, of Greenpeace.

Greenpeace, GE-Free New Zealand and other anti-GE groups will hold an all-organic "last supper" outside town halls throughout NZ at lunchtime today to reinforce their opposition to genetic engineering.

The Government has been determined to prevent leaks of the report. Just a handful of numbered copies will be given to Government officials today and the cabinet won't be briefed on the royal commission's findings until Monday.

Over six months, the four-member Royal Commission on Genetic Modification read 11,000 public submissions and heard evidence from more than 300 experts.

Hundreds of people also attended 15 public meetings and 10 regional hui held by the commission.

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