July 14, 2006
More than 10,000 people have signed a petition calling on the Australian Minister of Agriculture to ban research, development and use of Terminator seeds in the country.
The Australian Government has said it will consider corporate applications for approval of Terminator seeds on a case-by-case basis.
The Australian Government, with Canada and New Zealand, recently led efforts to undermine the United Nations moratorium on Terminator tecnology (also called Genetic Use Restriction Technology or GURTs). However, most governments across the world support a global ban and in March 2006 all governments agreed by consensus to strengthen the UN moratorium. This outcome was possible because of protests from Australians and people across the world.
"There's clearly strong public sentiment that the terminator is not acceptable," said Bob Phelps of the GeneEthics Network in Australia.
"We're submitting those petitions to the federal Agriculture Minister Peter McGauran and we're saying to the Australian Government we want you to align the Australian Government policy with the global view that it's unacceptable and that the global ban on terminator should remain."
The petition can be downloaded to sign and collect signatures at http://www.geneethics.org