Gene Ethics fully supports WA Premier Alan Carpenter’s call today for labels on all Genetic Manipulated (GM) foods and for all GM food approvals to stop while these unsafe foods are fully safety tested.

“We back Premier Carpenter’s call for labels on all GM foods and for Food Standards Australia NZ (FSANZ) to stop all approvals of GM foods until conclusive safety tests are done to prove they are safe to eat,” says Gene Ethics Director Bob Phelps.

“We join the Premier in calling on all Australian governments - through the Health Ministerial Council - to swiftly meet the public’s rights to safe food and to know a food is GM.

“All governments must back the WA call for basic changes to the present GM food standard. (more…)

(joint media statement from the the WA Premier and the Minister for Agriculture and Food)

Premier Alan Carpenter has called for better labelling of foods that contain Genetically Modified ingredients and an immediate halt to the approval of all GM foods in Australia until more is known about the safety of eating them.

Mr Carpenter said Australia’s national food regulator, Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ), should not approve any more foods for human consumption until it introduced independent scientific trials to determine the safety of GM foods.

“I find it unbelievable and unacceptable that the national food regulator relies principally on the say-so of the GM companies when assessing GM foods as safe to eat,” he said. (more…)

Tuesday’s state budget will leave public school classrooms $86.5 million short of the money needed to bring them up to an acceptable standard while wealthy private schools will continue to be heavily subsidised, according to Greens NSW MP John Kaye.

Commenting on the pre-budget announcement in today’s Sunday Telegraph (p.2, “Schools falling apart at seams”), Dr Kaye said: “The Iemma government failed to increase public school maintenance funding in real terms to address the $86.5 million backlog.

“The supposed $11 million boost will only hold total spending at standstill after accounting for rising costs. (more…)

Greens MLC Colleen Hartland is happy to wait another two weeks for the second reading of her Physician Assisted Dying bill.

“The longer we wait, the more support we get”, said Colleen Hartland.

“Support has grown to an overwhelming 80% of Australians calling for the right to obtain assistance to die, should they need it. The bill has been available for over a month.  I’m ready, and Victorians are ready.  Let’s get on with it.

“The bill provides compassion and support for people who are suffering intolerably, and who want to die.  But it also provides safeguards, and regulates a process that is currently going on in the dark,” said Colleen Hartland, MLC for Western Metropolitan Region. (more…)

A new report published by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare has highlighted grave concerns about the housing conditions affecting Indigenous Australians.

“The inequality experienced by Indigenous Australians is a national disgrace, and adequate housing should be top of the list of priorities,” said Greens spokesperson on Indigenous Issues, Senator Rachel Siewert today.

The report indicates the Indigenous impact of the housing crisis, with over a quarter of Australia’s Indigenous population living in overcrowded conditions. The highest rates of overcrowding among Indigenous households were in the Northern Territory (38%) followed by Western Australia (16%). (more…)

Sylvia Hale MLC, the NSW Greens spokesperson on housing, has commended the Prime Minister for promising to improve services for the homeless and for ordering a White Paper on the problem.

“It has been a long time since a senior Federal politician has taken any genuine interest in the plight of homeless people - the forgotten people. However, actions speak louder than words.

“The Greens want to see - and all those who work in the frontline homelessness services want to see - a properly-funded Supported Accommodation and Assistance Program and adequate and affordable long-term housing,” said Ms Hale. (more…)

Privatisation of the NSW electricity industry would deprive this state of more than $1 billion a year in revenue payments. Commonwealth underwriting assistance to the states to build public transport, health and education infrastructure would make the sell off unnecessary, according to Greens NSW MP John Kaye.

Dr Kaye said: “Treasurer Costa is using privatisation to create the illusion that he is solving the infrastructure deficit cause by the Carr/Iemma government’s failure to invest in public transport, education and health. (more…)

Greens MP and health spokesperson Lee Rhiannon is seeking to amend new liquor laws, due for debate in the NSW Upper House today. The amendments will limit small bars to 120 people, restrict the number of small bar licences someone can hold to ten and have the NSW Ombudsman review the impact of the new laws.

“The Greens’ amendments finesse the new laws to make sure NSW gets genuine small bars, not a scheme that fosters the unchecked proliferation of liquor outlets,” Ms Rhiannon said. (more…)

Greens MP and mining spokesperson Lee Rhiannon is calling on the Labor government to crack down on mining companies causing water, air and noise pollution and to force them to abide by their pollution licences.

“Many people in coal communities are living in unhealthy conditions because the NSW government is not forcing coal companies to abide by the rules,” Ms Rhiannon said.

“Data collected by the NSW government’s own Environmental Protection Authority reveals that coal companies are increasingly breaching their licence conditions and that fines are rarely imposed. (more…)

(letter to the Sydney Morning Herald, with a similar letter also sent to The Age)

The decision by the NSW and Victorian premiers to lift the ban on genetically engineered canola is a tragedy for both consumers and the environment, and the rationale of Ian MacDonald that NSW farmers can now compete on a level playing field with overseas farmers because GM canola now accounts for 70 per cent of the global canola market is staggering in the extreme.

What this decision does is remove the capacity for Australian farmers to realise premium prices for and corner the market on non-GE canola, highly sought after by an increasingly large Asian and European market, not to mention a growing number of consumers here in Australia. And as for GE canola needing fewer pesticides and herbicides, this is a furphy, given that farmers can and have used more chemicals because the canola remains unaffected, so every time a weed comes up, it’s out with the spray pack. (more…)