Senator Janet Rice today introduced a motion to disallow the Gene Technology Amendment (2019 Measures No. 1) Regulations 2019.
“The deregulation of new genetic modification techniques being pursued by this government has huge economic risks to Australia’s $48 billion agricultural export industry,” Senator Rice said.
“This deregulation could potentially kill our organic farming industry and massively hamper our traditional agriculture export industry too.
“While the Office of the Gene Technology Regulator (OGTR) has assessed this issue on a scientific and health basis, it has paid no consideration to the market impact of deregulation, nor has it properly consulted with the farmers whose livelihoods will be affected.
“There is a strong chance organic regulators locally and internationally will decide that since Australia has deregulated this technology, farmers will lose their organic certification. Without that certification, the organics industry would collapse entirely.
“Europe already says these new technologies are genetic modification technologies, and the risk is that if we proceed with this deregulation, countries such as China and the European Union could reject our exports.
“Australian agricultural exports to China alone are a nearly $12 billion industry,covering a huge suite of agricultural commodities.
“Many in the farming community are concerned that they’re going to lose access to export markets and the government hasn’t allayed those concerns.
“The Greens hope to receive cross-party support when this disallowance motion comes to a vote in the September sitting weeks.”
