INDEPENDENT NEWS

More GM confusion from the Greens

Published: Fri 21 Jun 2002 04:47 PM
More GM confusion from the Greens
"Jeanette Fitzsimons' response to my speech today on the Greens and GM displays the same confusion that pervades her party's campaign on this issue," says Minister for Research, Science and Technology Pete Hodgson.
"Ms Fitzsimons says her party's 'bottom line' is the extension of the current constraints on commercial release of GM organisms, which allow an exemption for vaccines. Yet in the same breath she says the Greens want to keep GM 'in the lab'.
"The Greens can't have it both ways. They can't run an emotive campaign with uncompromising slogans about keeping New Zealand 'GE free' and keeping GM in the lab, then point to the fine print when somebody like me highlights the implications of holding true to those slogans.
"If the Greens' real position is that some uses of GM will be beneficial and should proceed, with cautious management of the risks, they should say so. If they applied that logic consistently there would be no disagreement between us."
ENDS

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