|
AUS – STATES TOLD TO LIFT GM BANS
4 October 2006. Source: The Australian, Joseph Kerr
Lift ban on GM crops, states told
The states have been told to lift their moratorium on genetically modified crops as Australia grapples with the harshest drought in a century.
If Victoria and NSW moved to allow GM crops - touted by some as providing environmental and health benefits as well as cutting costs for farmers - it could persuade more dogmatic states to drop their opposition, Agriculture Minister Peter McGauran said yesterday.
Releasing the Government's response to a key report on agriculture and food in Australia for the next generation, Mr McGauran said there was only a 5 to 10 per cent chance of rain breaking the drought, and GM technology could be a boon.
He rejected key recommendations from the agriculture review, led by former National Farmers Federation president Peter Corish, that the Government open up unskilled migration, allowing in "guest workers" to help on farms. The Government also rejected a call for further "zonal" tax offsets for people living in rural areas.
But the Government adopted 35 of the 55 recommendations and took a further 17 on notice.
Mr McGauran signalled there would be a review of food regulation, as well as a look at reducing red tape for agricultural and food businesses.
But his most enthusiastic endorsement came for the report's call for the lifting of the GM moratorium.
"I strongly believe that the moratorium on GM commercial crops should be lifted by the states," said Mr McGauran, with the states due to make a decision by early 2008.
He acknowledged that given the coming elections in Victoria and NSW, those governments would be unlikely to want a debate about genetically modified crops.
"However, I believe that for much of 2007 the states would be shirking their responsibilities if they did not begin a debate so that people knew of the advantages and potential disadvantages of GMOs," he said.
Overseas experience showed GM crops could offer cost efficiencies for producers as well as environmental benefits.
Mr McGauran said there were signs of a shift among individual state agriculture, industry and science ministers, and 'that 'even premiers" in some states were leaning towards a debate on the issue.
Victoria had shown itself more willing to consider the environmental cost and advantages of GM than states such as Tasmania, and Western Australia that had "an outright ideological objection to GMO".
"If Victoria or NSW, or especially the two combined, were to lift the moratorium, then I believe the other states, whatever their prejudices and ideological opposition, would be forced to follow suit," he said.
Mr Corish said the commonwealth had set up the Office of the Gene Technology Regulator to look at human health issues related to genetic modification.
|
