The Government is proposing changes to our Gene Technology Regulations which would make Australia the first country in the world to deregulate a range of new genetic modification (GM) techniques in animals, plants and microbes.

If the Office of the Gene Technology Regulator (OGTR) deregulates these new GM techniques there will be no monitoring or surveillance. Anyone from amateur biohackers, to industry, to terror groups would be free to use them to genetically modify plants, animals and microbes. Entirely new diseases and poisons could be made. And they could enter our food chain and our environment with no safety testing and no labelling. The risks are enormous and the results could be catastrophic.

Reviews commissioned by the Austrian and Norwegian governments concluded that not enough is known about the risks posed by these new GM techniques. They recommended that products derived from them require comprehensive case-by-case risk assessments.

You can find further information - and sign our petition to the government - here.