The parliamentary inquiry into "corngate" - whether illegal GM-contaminated corn was allowed to remain in the ground in New Zealand and that the Government subsequently tried to cover up the issue - heard from officials that "they had been told by the main seed-testing company it believed there was contamination". Nicky Hager the investigative writer who exposed the scandal says, "The only reason [the committee] couldn't reach their own definitive conclusion as a select committee was because they had information being withheld by Syngenta".
------

Corngate' findings back my stance - Hager
NZ Press Association, 19 October 2004
http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3069763a10,00.html

The man whose book sparked "Corngate" believes the findings of a parliamentary inquiry into the release of genetically engineered (GE) sweetcorn vindicates his stance.

Author Nicky Hager's book Seeds of Distrust was published in July 2002 - 17 days before the general election. It alleged that thousands of GE sweetcorn plants had been grown in Gisborne, Hawke's Bay and Marlborough from a contaminated consignment from the United States.

The book caused a political storm because Hager alleged that at the time the Government was told of the contamination, in November 2000, officials considered setting a tolerance level for contamination rather than adhering to its "zero tolerance" policy.

Hager's allegations that the GE-contaminated corn was allowed to remain in the ground and that the Government subsequently tried to cover up the issue led to Corngate becoming a key election issue and drove a wedge between the anti-GE Green Party and Labour.

Prime Minister Helen Clark denied any cover-up and Parliament's local government and environment committee conducted a lengthy inquiry on the issue. Its report, released today, shows the committee split 50-50 on two key issues - whether the corn was contaminated and whether a "tolerance level" was sought by Government officials.

Despite the split, Hager said he was "really pleased" with the findings.

"It was inevitable. There was no chance that the Government members were going to contradict the ministers, so they were always going to say 'no, nothing, don't believe it'," he told NZPA.

"But I was really pleased that the other side of the report, the opposition side, set down evidence which confirmed most of the important things which I said in my book."

A key to his vindication was that officials told the committee they had been told by the main seed-testing company it believed there was contamination.

"The only reason they couldn't reach their own definitive conclusion as a select committee was because they had information being withheld by Syngenta, the United States seed company," Hager said.

"The reason that the officials didn't...destroy the seeds is because they introduced an allowable contamination level and they talked about other side issues like industry lobbying and the industry having too much influence.

"A combination of those is basically what my book was about, so I'm very pleased that anyone who reads that (report) is going to see the documentation set out in front of them."

Hager said he remained convinced his book was 100 per cent correct.

"The Government put up every witness it could and they had two years of hearings and nothing has turned up that has contradicted it," he said.

"The only places where the opposition report doesn't agree with it is where documentation doesn't exist either way, which they could do nothing about."