Genetically modified food - honey and canola

Extract from Hansard
[COUNCIL — Thursday, 23 June 2011]
p4736b-4736b
Hon Lynn MacLaren; Hon Peter Collier

GENETICALLY MODIFIED FOOD — HONEY AND CANOLA

Hon LYNN MacLAREN to the minister representing the Minister for Agriculture and Food:

(1) Is the minister aware that companies such as Woolworths and Coles require GM-free declarations from
honey producers?

(2) When the WA honey industry wrote to the minister in April 2010 requesting information about the
locations of GM crops to ensure that it could maintain a GM-free product, why did the minister refuse
to make this information public, stating that “market forces will eventually decide the issue”?

(3) How has the government implemented finding 3 of the government’s 2009 review of the Genetically
Modified Crops Free Areas Act 2003, which recommended that consideration be given to the
desirability of providing accurate information about the location of GM crops to producers who might
be affected by them and to provide ways of providing that information?

(4) How much GM canola was produced last year?

(5) How much of this GM canola has been sold and to whom?

Hon PETER COLLIER replied:

I thank the honourable member for some notice of the question. On behalf of the minister representing the
Minister for Agriculture and Food, I provide the following answer.

(1) No. In April 2010 Wescobee Ltd informed me that Coles and Woolworths in Australia require honey
that is free from any artificial contamination. GM was not identified as being an artificial contaminant.

(2) My April 2010 response to the chairman of Wescobee noted that —

Sorry, I am missing the second page of the answer. It is not in my file. I will hopefully find the remaining
answers. I apologise for that.

The PRESIDENT: You might be able to finish that answer at the end of question time.

HON PETER COLLIER (North Metropolitan — Minister for Energy) [5.05 pm]: I seek leave to table the
remaining responses to the questions asked by the Hon Lynn MacLaren earlier today and to have them
incorporated into Hansard.

Leave granted. [See paper 3411.]

The following material was incorporated —

• GM canola had been grown in NSW and VIC since 2008 without the need for signage on GM canola crops
• The Australian Office of the Gene Technology Regulator has concluded honey containing GM canola pollen is safe
• Under Australian Food Labelling laws honey containing GM canola pollen does not need to be labelled as GM.

In response to the statement contained in the Chairman of Wescobee’s letter that “We recognise that our industry is too small to
have any influence on the expansion of GM canola planting by grain producers” I made the comment that “market forces will
eventually decide this issue”.

3) The Department of Agriculture and Food provided information on the location to the Shire level of the GM canola plantings in
2010 and is negotiating with Monsanto to provide this information again in 2011.

4) 49 000 tonnes.

5) I am advised that none of this canola has been sold at this point. Some canola from WA in 2010 had a low oil content because
of the dry seasonal conditions. Low oil content non-GM canola was able to be blended with high oil content non-GM canola to
meet market specifications. Because of the low volume of GM canola grown in WA in 2010 there is not enough high oil content
GM canola to blend with low oil content GM canola, thus making a sale more difficult.