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February 12, 2003
Minister's call-in powers
extended
The government is proposing to add cultural, spiritual or
ethical effects to the list of grounds under which the Minister
for the Environment could step in to decide on an application
for the introduction of a new hazardous substance or new
organism that had been made to the Environmental Risk Management
Authority (ERMA).
The proposed change is part of a series of amendments the
government is proposing to the Hazardous Substances and New
Organisms (HSNO) Act 1996 in the latest step in its
implementation of the recommendations of the Royal Commission on
Genetic Modification.
Under the ministerial call-in provisions of the Act, the
minister can already step in in cases where there could be
significant economic, environmental, international, and health
effects as well as in cases where it is judged that ERMA lacks
sufficient knowledge or experience to decide the case.
The proposal is to add significant cultural, spiritual and
ethical effects to that list.
"This is a measure that the government takes extremely
seriously," the Environment Minister Marian Hobbs said.
"Exercising Ministerial Call-in would be a decision taken at the
highest level and with considerable thought and care.
"Ministerial Call-in allows the minister to appoint people with
relevant knowledge or experience to sit with ERMA to consider
the particular application. The Authority conducts a public
inquiry before reporting its recommendations to the minister.
The minister then has 20 days to make a decision."
The government has already set up a special body, Toi te Taiao:
The Bioethics Council, to advise it on the significant cultural,
spiritual and ethical issues as they arise in the area of
biotechnology (including genetic modification) and to promote
public debate on these. The council will not advise on specific
projects, but will concentrate more broadly on the issues in
current and future biotechnology research
and development as they arise and their advice will be informed
by public debate at a national level.
"The government is aware that many people who made submissions
during the public consultation on these changes wanted much more
emphasis put on cultural, spiritual and ethical impacts of the
new biologically-based technologies," Marian Hobbs said. "This
amendment and the work of the Bioethics Council in anticipating
where these issues will arise are designed to do just that.
"The council was never set up to decide applications on a
case-by-case basis. It would be an impossible and confusing
situation if more than one body were to become involved with
individual applications to develop or release new organisms. The
ERMA already has the legal power to consider cultural issues in
deciding on applications."
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