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[email protected] Tas GM Moratorium Review April 2019
[email protected] Friday May 3, 2019 Re: Inquiry into Tasmania’s Genetically Manipulated (GM) crops moratorium Thanks you for the opportunity to make this submission. If there is an opportunity to appear before the committee please invite us to do so. We recommend that the Tasmanian government: • Permanently maintain its GM-free policies and moratorium on the growing of GM crops, animals and microbes; • Continue to advocate through the Legislative and Governance Forum on Gene Technology (LGFGT) and other forums, that the Office of Gene Technology Regulator (OGTR) and Food Standards Australia and New Zealand (FSANZ) continue to assess, regulate and license all new and emerging GM techniques and their products, under the national Gene Technology Scheme and its Regulations. • Ensure the integrity of Tasmania’s GM moratorium by changing the definition of ‘genetically modified organism’ in the Genetically Modified Organisms Control Act 2004, to explicitly include organisms modified using all the new GM processes, including SDN-1 methods. • Lifting the GM crop moratorium would jeopardise an outstanding competitive advantage for the Tasmanian GM-free state brand, within the Health and Wellness marketing sector. • There is a clear competitive advantage for Australia and all its GM-free producers from growing and supplying non-GM canola. But Tasmania’s canola would very likely not comply with market requirements and be rejected, if the oilseed were GM. • The introduction of GM canola varieties into Tasmania may severely impact the input costs and profitability of farmers, with flow on effects to food production costs and food prices.