Posted 17th May 2001

"The material exceeded all expectations," Marian Hobbs said. "The Commission has an obligation to consider all evidence. It needs extra time to ensure this does happen." Well I think most of us would not say it exceeded all expectations at all. Any interested party could have predicted this, and the extension was pretty much expected given the short time frame, apart from the fact that Justice Eichelbaum specifically stated that he expected to report on time and implied that he wouldn't ask for an extension. And in fact rejected many applications for Interested Person status on the basis that too many would result in them not meeting their readline.l

The Royal Commission on Genetic Modification will now present its report on July 27, not June 1 as originally planned, the Minister for the Environment, Marian Hobbs, said today. A two-month extension was approved at Executive Council today after the Commission requested more time to deal with the large amount of material gathered on the genetic modification issue. "The material exceeded all expectations," Marian Hobbs said. "The Commission has an obligation to consider all evidence. It needs extra time to ensure this does happen." It is important the Commission has the time it needs to ensure a full and comprehensive report can be delivered, the Minister added. "Genetic modification is an issue that has implications for everyone," Marian Hobbs said. "Unnecessarily rushing a report on those implications would be most unwise." The Minister said the Government was satisfied it would be able to deal with any immediate issues arising from the Report in the month before the Voluntary Moratorium on applications for GMO field testing or release ends on August 31.

The Commission hopes to produce sufficient copies of its report to meet public demand by its new reporting date. "The report will be released as soon as practicable after that," the Minister said.