Hamish McKay: The Country spokesperson on NZ First raising concerns over Gene Tech Bill

New Zealand First has started to voice concerns over the proposed  Gene Technology Bill, breaking away from fellow coalition partners.

NZ First claimed it wouldn't support the current bill - unless National agreed to some significant changes. 

The Country's Hamish McKay explained further.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
The Rural Report on Heather Do for ce Allen.

Speaker 2 (00:04):
Drive, Heather Fyi for Matimer. Trump couldn't have done anything
a year ago because he didn't become president until January
this year. Inconvenient fact, Tony very inconvenient sixteen past six.
Hamish mackay filling in for Jamie mckaye on The Country
is with Us.

Speaker 1 (00:18):
Hello, Hamish, Hello Heather.

Speaker 2 (00:20):
It's the gene editing bill dead.

Speaker 1 (00:23):
I think it's get pretty close to that. I mean
National will be the sort of slowgo here act in
New Zealand first now really sort of raising their concern.
Screens and Labor obviously have said about this in the past,
but it's just too many unknowns here, and you've got
groups like Beef and Land New Zealand. They want a
far more consultation. They feel, like chair Kate Ecklum was

(00:43):
on the show today, I feel like it's been rushed
through a bit Venison farmers the same. I mean, this
gene modification, I mean where could this potentially end? And
I quite like, you know, taking the side of caution here.
I mean you've got examples in America, got these cattle
mutations where cows were the cattle were bred to be hornless,

(01:06):
and suddenly they can't handle antibiotics. I mean, what next
do we breed it? Do we grow a super spud
here in New Zealand and all of a sudden that
causes men to grow more nasal here and bushy eyebrows?
I mean, all sorts of things could go wrong. So
I think it's you know, I think we've already got
a modification as it is, so I think this one's
a little way away for now.

Speaker 2 (01:26):
So what is going on here is this? Is there
a move amongst the farming community to oppose this?

Speaker 1 (01:33):
Yeah, beef and lamb, I mean they'd be I think
that'd be fair to say that they speak for a
good percentage of farmers. Venison had Venison farmer dunk and
Harmon today out of Mount Summers. So yeah, yeah, look, look, look, look,
just get it right through. I think that I think
the feeling is get it right first. You know this,
You know, we don't really know what you know. We

(01:55):
can never be one hundred percent sure when you start
marking around with jeans, can you. So I think that's
I think I'm quite surprised. I'm quite impressed, you know,
because certainly when you when we were talking about you know,
crops that we want to be pest resistant and herbicide
tolerant and all that. You know, surely, you know there's
certain things that we would like to progress more quickly
in the egg and hort sector. But yeah, I just

(02:17):
think it's a bit of a cautious approach here across
the board.

Speaker 2 (02:20):
Okay, So is there how much of our international reputation
gets a bit of a premium because we are GM free?

Speaker 1 (02:28):
Yeah? Yeah, absolutely. You know, you know, for instance, Venison
is one of those that trades on that, and you know,
I think it's like it's, you know, it's a bit
of a Pandora's box if we open this up, you know,
and you know, the potential for the spread of genetically
modified crops. There's all sorts of things here, But our

(02:49):
reputation is sort of clean and green and quite simple.
It would be massive, I think in terms of the
overall perception on a global basis.

Speaker 2 (02:58):
Now, can I put it to you, homsh that the
reason I suspect the reason that New Zealand VERST has
piped up about this now is because they're preparing for
next year's election and they want to court the farmer's vote.
This is why they're doing this, This is why they're
starting to make noises about Fonterra. What do you think?

Speaker 1 (03:12):
Oh? I can only but agree with you, Heather. I
think you're very astudent on the money there and starting
to make noise at the right time with the farmers
who they have, you know, to a certain degree, they've
got some of them in their court. So yeah, yeah,
I think you're right.

Speaker 2 (03:29):
Oh, Hamish, thank you. I'll take that and run with it.

Speaker 1 (03:31):
Yeah, I'm not going to dispute you when you make
so much sense, you know, hand it back to you
on a plate. Thank you.

Speaker 2 (03:38):
Listen, you you're welcome, as I say, stay on the
show as long as you want. Hamus Mackay. Jamie's going
to come back. He better be very agreeable when he
comes back. I was just going to swap him out
for Hamish anyway he's feeling in. Hamish is filling in
for Jamie obviously on the country.

Speaker 1 (03:54):
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