Barry Soper: ZB senior political correspondent on the Government overturning a ban on genetic technology

The Government says it's overturning a nearly-30 year ban on genetic technology to bring us up to speed with the rest of the world.

Science Minister Judith Collins says legislation ending the ban will be introduced to Parliament by the end of the year.

A dedicated regulator will also be established to oversee gene technology applications.

ZB senior political correspondent Barry Soper says New Zealand stands to benefit from these new scientific developments.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Right, Barry, soap o seeing your political correspondence with me.

Speaker 2 (00:02):
Hey Barry, good afternoon, Heather.

Speaker 1 (00:04):
So what do you make of the ban on genetic
engineering being lifted? I mean, would you have if I
had said this to you in twenty twenty two, that
we would lift it by twenty twenty four, would you
have expected an outcry?

Speaker 2 (00:13):
Oh? Absolutely? Well. You remember, way back when Helen Clark
was the Prime minister, there was corn Gate and that
was that lead came about by book with our old
mate Nicky Harga Seeds of Distrust, Seeds of Distrust, and
he claimed that in two thousand the Clark government had

(00:34):
tried to cover up a breach of the country's environmental
laws following the importation the accidental planting of thirty thousand
genetically modified sweet corn seeds. And I remember, you know,
at the time, this genetic modification thing was so big
in the psyche of New Zealand. It was scary. I
remember talking about two headed fish and how they'd be

(00:56):
much easier to carry.

Speaker 3 (00:56):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (00:57):
I mean we were led to believe that life as
we know it was about to change. And now we
see Chris Luxon coming out today saying that the effect
of ban on gene editing would be scrapped by the
end of next year. And so well it should be
because you look at our crops, for example, we stop
cows from burping, you know, they've got to be genetically modified. Well,

(01:23):
I've got these scientists who should be able to look
at them to see how they can modify these crops
to stop that sort of thing. And that's just one
small example. But you can't stand in the way of science.
And even though twenty years ago the outcry was there,
I think people have probably just got used to the
fact that science does tr john and the country and

(01:46):
the environment as a result actually gets better. What about
nuclear power? That's the next thing.

Speaker 1 (01:51):
Yeah, maybe I just wonder if next time, like I
just wonder if if we can see now the ge
thing for what it was, which was largely media hysteria.

Speaker 2 (02:00):
Oh totally, And maybe we're You've even got the Greens
now saying about the announcement today that they believe there
should be debate, robust public discussion. They said on it
now they would have been so well, I remember they
were so vehemently opposed to it in the day, but
now they're saying, okay, let's have a discussion about this. Well,

(02:22):
you know, it's taken a long time, but finally I
guess we've got there.

Speaker 1 (02:25):
Have you watched the Donald Trump interview?

Speaker 2 (02:27):
Oh well, I've spent far too much time listening to
it on Next Today.

Speaker 1 (02:31):
Did you learn anything?

Speaker 2 (02:32):
No, I didn't never learned Elon a good interviewer? Or
was he just he was just there singing Donald Trump's praise,
just a broman. And even though Donald Trump. I got
an email, of course, an hour before the interview from
Donald Trump saying that well it was twenty four hours.
It was yesterday, saying that it's twenty four hours until

(02:54):
the interview of the century. As he built it, he
says he's back on it for a short time. It's
the old Twitter with none other than Elon Musk. So
we and I've got to say, when I was listening
to it, there are a million people listening to it
at the time. But Donald Trump, he said, look, there

(03:15):
are great battles to come. And the selfless man told
Musk he's putting his country before himself.

Speaker 3 (03:22):
I didn't need it. I had a nice life. I
have great locations. I have beautiful oceans that I have
places you know this was but I felt it was
important and if I had it, if I had to
do it over again, you probably think I'm crazy for
doing it actually, but if I had to do it
over again, I would have done it over again because
this is so much more important than me or my life.

(03:42):
This is we're going to save this country. This country
is going down and these people are bad people that
were running against and their liars. They make statements, they
they do things that are so bad. They say they're
going to make a strong border. They say they've been
great on the border, and they've been the worst in history.

Speaker 2 (04:02):
So he would say that this election, and he did
say it in the interview, was the most important election
in the history of the world. In the world, yea,
the world. That's the most important election.

Speaker 1 (04:14):
So listen. The reform of the Crown Maori Affairs Office, what.

Speaker 3 (04:19):
Is this thing called?

Speaker 2 (04:21):
What's it called tai okay not.

Speaker 1 (04:25):
We were expecting a shutdown of the whole thing and
that hasn't happened.

Speaker 2 (04:27):
Well. Speculation was certainly rife in the past week, and
I've been reading about it that the future of Tapuna,
Carkari and Ti raffiti was going to be merged one
to our raffiti would be folded into the Ministry of Justice,
to Punicoki would be allowed, but be peered back significantly.

(04:49):
We got a statement from Tama Portucker, the Minister today,
and I've got to say, reading towards the end of it,
I didn't quite understand what it was all about. But
they're not going to be merged. They're going to be Terrafiti.
It'll remain the department agency to continue its treaty of
our Tonguey settlements and Tapunakoku will advise the government on policy.

(05:13):
And he said support the acceleration of Murray economic development.
Well that's what they've been doing, Okay, So I don't
know why the announcement.

Speaker 1 (05:21):
Yes today, Barry, thank you appreciate that. By the way,
it's called the MALDI Crown Relations Office. Barry Sooper, Senior
Political Corresponding.

Speaker 3 (05:28):
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