by Mike Bee

I hate the term “submission” but this is my statement, hurriedly written the night before the closing date, regarding the Gene Technology Bill.

I/We wish to make the following comments:

The market for non-GMO food is growing at a rate of 12.5% per year in North America, China and India. Throwing away the rulebook on GMO organisms as this new legislation proposes risks all that. Trust, once lost, cannot be regained. For the sake of a few growers and some scientists that make up the “bio-tech industry” and who are chasing quick wealth, is New Zealand really prepared to risk whole markets, built up over years, on such a reckless venture?

There is very little benefit to be expected from this bill and huge downside risks. I was shocked to hear our Prime Minister and Judith Collins gush like children with enthusiasm for doing away with the rules of the Nineties and opening up the country to GMO development with no limitations. They gave this presentation in front of a Camelia bush with many dead flowers on the ground behind them. To me, it was symbolic of the death and destruction that they are inviting into this country.

The new bill does away with labelling requirements. It’s easy to see why such a step has been taken – because the public everywhere, in New Zealand and overseas, has rejected these non-natural products and will not consume them or buy them if they are informed of what it is that they are eating. It is criminal to try to surresptiously make these organisms a part of what we eat without informing us of what we are eating.

Everything in this bill favours a tiny minority at the expense of ordinary New Zealanders. We do not want you tinkering with Nature. We do not believe it when you tell us your science is SAFE AND EFFECTIVE. We have learned from the last time you said this. Are GMO producers required to have liability insurence in the case of damage being done? No, there is no mention of that in this bill.  Despite playing lip service to public safety in the bill’s description, there is nothing in the actual wording of the bill that will keep us safe. You have thrown out the long-standing PRECAUTIONARY PRINCIPLE, and you try to tell us that such measures from the Nineties are outdated and holding us back.

It’s easy to see that this bill is being rushed through without time for proper public consultation. It is sloppily written, and is doomed to create huge problems for our country.

My main question is who is giving Collins, Luxon and others the orders to embark on such a destructive policy? Are NZ politicians and industry leaders getting kickbacks? We know from DOGE investigations in the US that this practice is happening on a wide scale. Is it taking place in New Zealand? And if so, how long do you think it can be hidden?

The politicians should be representing the people. You are not doing that. This bill is just one other example of your illegal behaviour, and I want to take this opportunity to say that we the people reject this. Acting in this way against the New Zealand people is treason. If there are people who are found to have committed crimes, these people will be prosecuted.

We have a Bill of Rights, and one of its provisions is that we cannot be subject to medical experimentation, but turning New Zealand into one big laboratory experiment is exactly what this bill is doing. If this bill, with all its errors and dangers, is allowed to become law, it will be because overseas puppet-masters have decided to enforce it upon New Zealand  Our parliamentarians should be our defence against such criminality, but they are not at all acting in the people’s best interests.

The harm that will come from carrying out the principles set out in this bill are profoundly against our national interests. That this can be suggested suggests to us that present leadership is acting as if they are a dictatorship with no regard for genuine public consultation. We the people have a duty to resist you in such a case, for we see through your fraudulent activities. If the law is being used as a weapon to subjugate the people, then challenging that law is not rebellion – it is self-defence. This bill must not be allowed to become a law. It must be thrown out.

Go through with this bill and continue to blot out the voices that are, more and more, being raised against it, and you will see how the people will rebel against you. You are hereby placed on notice. We have been patient for a long time, but such continual action against us has led to many of us knowing that a great catharsis of government is necessary.

A moral renewal is taking place in the world, and it will hit New Zealand shortly. This bill must be stopped, and politicans must stop listening to overseas puppet-masters and follow the will of the New Zealand people.

I/We wish to make the following recommendations:

That the present bill be thrown out and attention be given to crafting a new bill that pays attention to the PRECAUTIONARY PRINCIPLE – to proper labelling of GMO products, that gives consideration to NZ’s clean-green image and what we stand to lose if we lose the confidence of the world, and the basic right of Kiwis not to have an UNSAFE and INEFFECTIVE technology imposed upon us. Also to take time with this process and involve many more people with proper media coverage of pros and cons.

The final closing date will be 11.59 pm on Monday 17^th February, although there is a petition circulating to have this date extended.

Others can make similar personal statements at:

https://www.parliament.nz/en/ECommitteeSubmission/54SCHEA_SCF_22059628-B0CC-4931-5E07-08DD18A12BFB/CreateSubmission