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The bill was recently the focus of a public inquiry. For those of you not aware of the inquiry - it's hardly surprising. If you don't read The Australian, aren't considered a 'key stakeholder' and didn't glance at the Senate Community Affairs Committee website during the two week submission period - the chances are you won't have heard about it. This lack of proper public consultation is hardly surprising, given that a major part of the bill is devoted to reducing or removing altogether the requirement for public consultation around the the growing of genetically engineered (GE) crops. And this is not even the most disturbing part of the bill!
The bill gives the Federal Government the power to override the State moratoria on GE food crops. Greenpeace is concerned that, under the proposed emergency provisions, the Agriculture Minister could use drought or pest problems to justify the release of GE crops - with no requirement for a safety assessment or approval from the States. Under the proposed changes, the minister can give the go-ahead for the release of any genetically modified organism (GMO) if he considered it necessary to deal with an imminent threat.
According to Fisheries, Forestry and Conservation Minister Eric Abetz, who introduced the legislation to the Senate last month, "Gene technology holds great potential for Australia and there may be circumstances where a genetically modified organism is uniquely capable of dealing with a health or environmental emergency."
The Government claims that the emergency powers are needed to deal with emergencies, such as outbreaks of bird flu, for which GE vaccines could be developed. However the scope of the legislation is much wider than this. Rather than being limited to vaccines, the legislation covers all GMOs - including GE crops. The minister merely has to be satisfied that an 'imminent threat' exists – but this is not explicitly defined. The minister could therefore use drought or pest problems to justify the introduction of GE crops, without the need for a full safety assessment. It's basically left to the minister's discretion with no need to prove a threat actually exists.
Another part of the bill removes the requirement for the Federal Government to consult the State Governments and the community when GE experiments may pose significant risks to the to the health and safety of people or to the environment. This includes field trials of GE crops – so there would be no requirement to consult with the local community on whether they want to have a GE test site in their neighbourhood.
Ignoring the precautionary principle gave us the cane toad problem. Given the unpredictable nature of GMOs, full safety assessments and proper public consultation are critical if we are to prevent Stephen Hawking's predictions from coming true.
