Cameron England: Why do our gutless politicians keep ignoring science on issues such as GM crops, fracking and nuclear waste?

GM crops, fracking, storing low-level nuclear waste. All safe according to science. All banned by South Australian politicians to score political points.

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Bravo! South Australian politicians have once again put evidence to one side and let their ideological biases drive the agenda, in continuing to block genetically modified foods being grown by our farmers.

To be fair they are staying true to form. It’s a long-held tradition in this state to let politics and beliefs override science and empirical evidence.

Previous examples include this government’s ban on fracking in the state’s South-East and the former Rann Government’s legislation that blocked the establishment of a national low-level nuclear waste repository in SA, with the result that we’re still storing this waste in our cities more than 20 years after the idea was first floated.

In the case of GM foods the evidence appears overwhelming that South Australian farmers - as they say themselves - do not derive a premium from the state’s GM-free status, and have foregone more than $30 million in benefits by not being able to grow GM canola.

And there’s no evidence to suggest that it’s not entirely safe.

The current Liberal government was clear in its ambition to change the rules, which stopped farmers from growing GM crops and appear to have a clear mandate to do so.

So in this case we appear to have good science, industry support, and a government with a mandate.

Grain Producers SA Chair Wade Dabinett is frustrated with the ongoing ban on growing GM crops.

On the other side of the fence we have The Greens intractably opposed to GM foods at any cost, being joined by SA-Best making the feeble argument that they will vote to block the changes because parliamentary due process wasn’t followed.

The Labor Party seems to be split on the issue but still fell back on the “due process” argument to create a political headache for the government.

SA-Best literally say it’s not about the outcome for farmers, which would seem a bizarre statement for everyday South Australians who might think that governments and elected members are actually there to get something done.

“Our decision is not based on whether we support lifting the moratorium or whether we don’t support lifting the moratorium – or whether we support GM crops or whether we don’t – our decision is based entirely on ensuring the due processes of parliament are adhered to and maintained,” SA-Best MLC Connie Bonaros said in a statement.

What? Surely if due process is so important a deal could be done to wave through the changes to the benefit of farmers, and lock in the legislation at a later date.

Our poor farmers must be tearing their hair out.

Meanwhile the Greens are unwilling to accept the views of our eminent scientists, five of whom published an open letter in The Advertiser this week calling for support for GM crops to help us combat the effects of drought and climate change.

It’s a difficult moral position to try to argue that the undisputed science around climate change should be reflected in regulation and legislation, but the science that backs GM crops, and fracking for that matter, should be ignored, but that’s the balancing act the Greens are happy to take on.

One again politics wins out, while common sense proves itself to be entirely uncommon.