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Free New Zealand in Food & Environment,
02nd March 2005
Minister Misleading Parliament over Terminator Support
Government Minister
Marian Hobbs has lost her moral compass and may have deliberately
misled Parliament in defending her support for Terminator GURTS
during 'question time' on Wednesday. The minister claimed that "many
countries from around the world had" , like New Zealand, -
supported Canada's plan to destabilise a de facto moratorium on
GURTS ( Genetic Use Restriction Technologies) at a recent UN meeting
in Bangkok.
However
reports from the conference revealed that only Australia and New
Zealand stood up to support Canada in its plan. "Who are the
countries she is referring to? This seems to be either deliberately
misleading or it is based on secret inside information that she
should share with the rest of the world community,' says Jon Carapiet
from GE Free NZ in food and environment.
Worse is the fact that the Minister and the Labour-led government
are ignoring the ethical and moral issues behind the international
de facto moratorium.
It is clear that the government is hiding behind claims of "
scientific interest" to compensate for their lack of a moral
and ethical foundation for this policy.
It is hypocrisy for this government to crow about the 'moral cause'
of nuclear disarmament as Marian Hobbs did when asked to comment
on the anniversary of the Lange debate at Oxford.
"The Minister and her advisors have lost their moral compass
if they cannot see the ethical reasons for an international ban
on Monsanto's patented Terminator system,' says Jon Carapiet. "Even
on a 'case by case' basis it is clear that the Monsanto system has
nothing to offer environmental protection and merely fulfils a cynical
plan for control of patents," he says. This is an ethical and
moral issue that the government must answer clearly: New Zealand
must support an international Ban on Monsanto's Terminator system.
Moral failure to support the developing world now may mean New Zealand
becomes complicit in the creation of a fundamentally unjust regime
resulting in growing international civil unrest in the years ahead.
Ends
Jon Carapiet 0210 507 681
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