Key policy details

• Opportunity does not support the Gene Technology Bill in its current form. 
• We believe in widening the toolkit available to New Zealand farmers, researchers and conservationists in the face of mounting climate and other challenges. 
• We support the development of a modern, risk-based regulatory framework built around independent expert assessment, case-by-case evaluation and genuine accountability.
• We believe a robust national conversation on Gene Technology is critical and would launch a national Citizens’ Assembly to ensure every perspective is heard. 

Policy overview

New Zealand stands at a genuine turning point on gene technology. After nearly three decades of regulatory stasis, there is broad agreement across science, industry, and government that the current framework is no longer fit for purpose. 

The Opportunity Party believes we have a real chance to get gene technology regulations right. And that getting it right matters enormously for farmers, patients, conservationists and indeed all New Zealanders.

New Zealand faces a genuinely demanding set of challenges - like new disease pressures, climate volatility and biosecurity pressures to name a few. We want our farmers, conservationists, medical professionals and others to have every legitimate option available to them as they navigate these challenges.

Gene technology, used well and regulated properly, expands what is possible.  

That said, we recognise that different applications of Gene Technology carry different risk profiles and that protecting New Zealanders rights to abstain from gene technology (like to grow and sell organically certified food and fibre) is critical. We take these concerns seriously. 

That’s why we are proposing a modern, risk-based regulatory framework built around independent expert assessment, case-by-case evaluation, genuine accountability and a robust national conversation. 

We believe that New Zealand's food security, agricultural identity and environmental ambitions are not in tension with gene technology. Managed well, they can point in the same direction.

Our Gene Technology policy has two parts:

• Opposition to the Gene Technology Bill
• Introduction of modern gene technology framework

Opposition to the Gene Technology Bill

Opportunity does not support the Gene Technology Bill in its current form. We believe it should be withdrawn so that a properly designed process can begin in the next Parliamentary term.

New Zealanders deserve a higher standard of policymaking for a decision of this magnitude and the Bill has significant problems that cannot be fixed at the margins. 

The Government did not consult the public during its development. Stakeholders were given a narrow window to engage, leaving critical questions around trade exposure, liability and environmental risk unresolved. There was no Regulatory Impact Statement adequate to the scale of the change being proposed. And rather than establishing a genuinely modern framework, the bill is modelled on Australia's Gene Technology Act 2000, legislation that is itself a quarter century old.

The result is a Bill that swings the pendulum sharply in the other direction - potentially giving New Zealand one of the most liberal gene technology regimes in the world, without the safeguards or institutional design to match.

Specific failures include:

• No clear liability framework, leaving farmers and rural communities exposed to the costs of contamination events they did not cause
• Risk parameters are left to secondary legislation rather than primary law, meaning they can be changed by ministerial direction without Parliamentary scrutiny
• No clear purpose statement obligates the regulator to protect people and the environment
• Inadequate provision is included for Treaty obligations, creating unnecessary legal ambiguity for Māori communities and iwi with legitimate interests in how these technologies are used on whenua and in taiao

A new process should include a full Regulatory Impact Statement, genuine public and industry consultation (ideally via a Citizens’ Assembly), an independent expert advisory panel with clear terms of reference, and a transparent framework for Treaty engagement. 

These are not bureaucratic niceties. They are the conditions under which durable, trusted reform in a contentious issue like this becomes possible.

Introduction of a modern gene technology framework

The Opportunity Party supports a modern, risk-based regulatory framework built around independent expert assessment, case-by-case evaluation, genuine accountability and the building of public trust. 

We recognise that gene technology is not a monolith. Different applications carry different risk profiles. The job of good regulation is to match oversight to actual risk, rather than treating all gene technology as either uniformly dangerous or uniformly benign. 

Our aim is to build a regulatory framework that can scrutinise all parts of a gene technology application - the trait, the organism, the environment and the potential for irreversible change. As an example, we need a framework that can distinguish between lower-risk gene editing (precise editing of an organism's existing genome) and applications that introduce genetic material from other species. 

Regulating all of these factors under a single precautionary umbrella, has served New Zealand poorly. Instead, Opportunity will support a regulatory framework based on: 

• Case-by-case risk assessment. Every application should be assessed on its own merits, covering the specific modification, the organism, the intended use, the release environment, and the reversibility of that release. No category of gene technology should be pre-approved or pre-excluded. The framework should be rigorous and consistent, not ideological in either direction.
• Liability that reflects responsibility. Clear rules that respect organic certification and protect farmers and communities if things go wrong. 
• Treaty obligations met clearly and early. A transparent process for engaging Māori communities and iwi, with clear legal footing, so that Treaty obligations are met substantively rather than managed as a legal risk at the end of the process.
• Transparency and public trust. Mandatory monitoring, public reporting, and a clear process for reviewing decisions as knowledge evolves. Trust in this framework has to be earned from the outset, that’s why we’re also calling for a national Citizens’ Assembly on Gene Technology to ensure the public sees how these decisions are made. 
• Gene Technology as one tool among many. Opportunity supports giving farmers choice including the safe use of gene technology alongside other practices such as regenerative, organic and nature-positive farming. A robust regulatory regime will safeguard and enable this.