Dean Smith (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate—

(a) notes:

(i) the intention of the Western Australian State Government to repeal its Genetically Modified Crops Free Areas Act 2003, which will remove the legislative framework put in place by the former Labor State Government that creates genetically modified (GM) organism free areas within Western Australia,

(ii) that this policy decision has the united support of both the state's major farming organisations, the Pastoralists and Graziers Association of Western Australia and The Western Australian Farmers Federation, and

(iii) the large scale adoption of 'Round Up Ready' canola by Western Australian farmers following its introduction by the Western Australian Liberal National State Government in 2009 10;

(b) supports the recommendations of both the 2006 statutory review of the Gene Technology Act 2000, and the 2011 Review of the Gene Technology Act 2000 [report to the Department of Health and Ageing by the Allen Consulting Group], which noted that GM crops posed no adverse impact on markets, and concluded that state bans were having detrimental, rather than beneficial impacts; and

(c) condemns the Western Australian State Labor Party's anti GM policy, including the reintroduction of a ban on cultivating GM crops if re-elected.