The National Party would relax ultra-strict regulation of gene editing and modification in New Zealand, if elected in October.
Party leader Christopher Luxon announced the policy on TVNZ’s Q+A on Sunday morning, alongside a press release from Judith Collins, the spokesperson for science and technology.
National’s ‘Harnessing Biotech Plan’ would end an effective ban on gene editing and modification, and create a dedicated regulator to ensure safety and ethics.
Collins said allowing more genetic modification to take place would unlock enormous benefits for climate change, agriculture and health science.
“It has been used in New Zealand laboratories since the 1970s, but restrictive rules, drafted in the 1990s, make research outside the lab all but impossible. This means our scientists must head overseas to conduct further research,” she said.
National would introduce a biotechnology regulator that would regulate all forms of gene technologies and non-GE/GM biotechnology, taking that role away from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
“The regulator’s role will be to protect human health and the natural environment and manage ethical concerns while allowing New Zealanders to access the benefits of advanced biotechnology,” Collins said.
Any human embryonic genetic editing or modification would not be authorized in New Zealand.
National’s policy document said that NZ was not capitalising on the research and development that was needed to grow the economy.
It gave the example of bio-fuel company Lanzatech, which left New Zealand in 2014 partly due to not being able to easily use genetic modification in its production processes.
The company, which has since listed on the Nasdaq, is valued at over $1.3 billion.
There are also hopes that genetic modification could help reduce emissions from farms, a tricky issue that NZ has yet to tackle.
For example, a methane inhibitor called Bovaer has the potential to lower livestock emissions by 30%, but faces a four-year approval process in New Zealand.
National’s policy document said Kiwi scientists had been forced to go offshore to conduct field trials of genetically modified grasses designed to reduce methane emissions in livestock.
Relaxing regulation of gene modification has wide support in the scientific community, including from the Prime Minister’s Chief Science Advisor, Juliet Gerrard.
"It's a bit like having an act which imposes a greater penalty on electric cars than petrol cars because electric cars were not invented in 1998,” she said in 2019.
Peter Gluckman, a former Prime Minister’s Chief Science Advisor, has said the science was settled and genetic modification could now be considered safe.
“There are no significant ecological or health concerns associated with the use of advanced genetic technologies... If we are to remain a biological economy, we will have to have another conversation about it."
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