“Federated Farmers would welcome amendment to the Resource Management Act to “clarify the respective functions and roles of the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) and local government,” as the Minister put it,” says Katie Milne, Federated Farmers Local Government spokesperson.
“We are not overly impressed with some councils wasting ratepayer resources on trying to ape the EPA. As Minister Adams put it, councils should not “set up their own independent states where they write their own rules and ignore the national framework”.
“Especially when those rules are based on what seems to be ‘pub-talk’.
“Regarding the Northland inter-council working party’s draft section 32 analysis recommending ‘local regulation’ to restrict GMO’s, the critical section on risk and benefits only references one website known for its anti GMO stance, one anti-GMO book and one of the key proponents for local regulation. None of these references are peer reviewed and there is no mention of reports from agencies, such as the European Commission.
“A section 32 analysis should be based on sound science but this analysis is neither unbiased nor rigorous. The intercouncil working party appears to ignore its own legal advice, which is qualified by the need for a robust section 32 analysis which could withstand challenge in the courts.
“It puts these councils on a collision course with the EPA, which does possess the brainpower and resources to test more than an internet search engine.
“Bizarrely, the Northland inter-council working party’s analysis makes no mention of the GMO based “equine influenza vaccine”, which is currently approved for conditional release in New Zealand.
“Nor, I must add, what the cost to Northland’s bloodstock and racing industries would be if councils tried to block its use.
“That’s why the legality of councils regulating GMOs is highly questionable.
“Federated Farmers view, shared by Minister Adams, is that the only appropriate way to make these decisions is through careful scrutiny of the science. We entrust the EPA with the scientific and funding resources to make these types of scientific assessments.
“Councils need to stick to their knitting and regulating GMO’s is not it,” Katie Milne concluded.
- Supplied release from Federated Farmers
