Long Pocket Concerned
Residents' Group
September 13, 1999.
The Manager
Biotechnology Australia
GPO Box 9839
Canberra ACT 2601
Dear Sir/Mme,
We wish to make this submission regarding
the future of genetically manipulated organisms (GMO’s), as
was invited in the discussion paper "Developing
Australia’s Biotechnology Future", dated
September 1999.
BACKGROUND
Our original connection with Biotechnology
has arisen from our opposition to the proposed inappropriate
placement of a large commercial GMO laboratory within a
residential area at Long Pocket, Indooroopilly, in Brisbane. This
is to be known as the Natural Sciences Precinct (NSP),
to be built on the site of smaller existing laboratory
facilities, currently owned by CSIRO and the Qld State
Government, in conjunction with the University of Qld.
SUMMARY OF OBJECTIONS TO GMO
LABORATORIES AT NSP:
- Initially, the builders of NSP
conducted a sham public consultation
process, which purported to indicate that the community
was in favour of NSP, when in fact, the opposite is
markedly the case.
- In 1998, the CSIRO secretly
trapped and killed all the possums in Long Pocket,
after they consumed a dish of genetically modified
bacteria, in their laboratory. Local residents and the
community were not informed, and this has dashed any
illusions we had of the safety of GMO research.
- The NSP is to be placed adjacent
to the state's largest fruit bat colony, on
Indooroopilly Island. They could be just as easily
contaminated as were our possums.
- The builders of the NSP have produced
architectural plans which involved destruction
of federally protected endangered trees
(Austromyrtus Gonoclada), in the small rainforest on the
CSIRO section of NSP. This rainforest is an integral part
of the only bird migration corridor in SouthEast Qld, for
47 local species of birds.
- There is a lack of adequate
road access to this large laboratory complex,
which is served by a single neighbourhood suburban
street, Meiers Rd.
- Our interactions with the NSP have been
far from transparent and open. Despite our two meeting
with NSP executives, we have been actively mislead about
the development of plans for the NSP. We have
had to resort to the Freedom of Information Act, to
obtain the architectural briefs, commissions to planners
and costings. The NSP seem to continue to regard us
meddling and naive, for daring to consider the proposed
laboratory complex as worthy of public consideration
before it is built.
- There is no benefit for the
local community in having a large laboratory
complex forcibly placed within its residential
environment.
- There are two alternative
suitable greenfield sites, already owned and
partly developed by the NSP builders, about 10-15 minutes
drive from Indooroopilly. These exist at Pinjarra Hills
and Samford, and already have some considerable
scientific infrastructure, with plenty of room to expand,
far from residential areas.
- The builders of the NSP are using their
exemption from local and state government
building codes to build over-sized
laboratories in residential areas. There is another
glaring example of this, in the gigantic Institute
for Molecular Biology (IMB),
about to be built at the University of Qld by the same
parties. The IMB is 153m long, seven stories high, and
directly across the road from an established residential
area at St. Lucia, in Brisbane!!
- The builders of the NSP and IMB have
proceeded with advanced planning, before
completion and publicising of Environmental Impact
Studies, Assessment of Impact Studies, proper
Traffic Studies, and Risk Management Reports.
- GMO’s produced in laboratories at
IMB will be routinely transported through
residential streets to the NSP. We consider
this as unsatisfactory, regardless of safety protocols.
NSP EFFECTS ON COMMUNITY RELATIONS
These issues have combined to make out community
totally opposed to the building of GMO laboratories at the NSP
at Indooroopilly. We have started picketing and demonstrating
against GMO research, destruction of local rainforest and
degradation of our suburb by increased traffic.
We believe the GMO protagonists are prepared
to "ride rough-shod" over community interests in favour
of their own self-serving interests. They seem to have little
regard for their position in the community, or for their
community image regarding environmental citizenship. Our groups
use the term "Environmental Cowboys"
to describe these proponents of GMO.
Through their avaricious approach to
building, they had managed to successfully isolate and
marginalize themselves, from the very communities in which they
reside, and from which they still require most of their funding. The
community will never accept inappropriate placement of GMO
laboratories in their residential areas.
Our interactions so far with these GMO
organisations, including CSIRO, DPI, DNR and the University Qld
has been thoroughly disappointing. We feel we have been treated
with a gross lack of public consultation and
respect. They have under-estimated the positive role we would
like to play in the development of GMO research.
The placement of the NSP in a residential
area at Indooroopilly was always a wrong idea, and its promotion
by GMO organisations is having drastically detrimental effect on
the image of Biotechnology in Brisbane.
RECOMMENDATIONS
- GMO research should only be conducted away
from residential areas.
- PC-4(high risk to the community)
laboratories should not be allowed in
residential areas.
- The community should be informed if
local possums or fruit bat colonies are contaminated by
GMO research.
- The community should be notified if the
CSIRO intends to sacrifice any possums or fruit bats in
the community, for whatever reasons.
- Before such GMO laboratories are built,
the community should be fully consulted,
and asked whether they agree to have GMO research in
their suburbs at all, and whether they agree to PC-3
(high risk to the individual) and PC-4 laboratories
across the road from their houses.
- Follow the Brisbane City Draft Plan,
which dictates that large institutions are allowed in
residential areas, only when they directly serve that
local community.
- Ensure that large GMO research
facilities should not receive funding or approval by
governments before Environmental
Impact Studies, Assessment of Impact Studies, proper
traffic studies and Risk Management Reports are completed
and circulated to the community.
- Best Practice should involve the
colocation of related GMO institutions e.g.
NSP and IMB, on the same site, and in greenfield sites.
This would minimise risk to the community, and prevent
accidental contamination during transport of GMO’s.
- Large scientific institutions should
only be placed on main roads, with adequate
transport infrastructure e.g. with rail access
and good public transport.
- At the very least, wide
buffer zones (minimum 10 km) of open space and
flora should exist between GMO research stations and
residential housing.
- All GMO research facilities should be subject
to normal Local Government and State Government building
regulations. They should not be exempt, simply
because they are being built on state or federal
government land i.e. they should be compulsorily and
automatically subject to the Draft City Plan1999 and the
Integrated Planning Act (Qld) 1997.
- The community should be informed of
any on-site contamination. At present, the
CSIRO does not conform to the State Government register
of contaminated sites. We have evidence that there is
significant contamination on their site, but this cannot
confirmed, if CSIRO continues to refuse to co-operate
with the Qld State Government over this issue.
SUMMARY
We believe that the development of
GMO’s in Queensland has not been served well by the way in
which this obviously inappropriate development, the NSP, has been
forced on the local community.
We want to assist these scientists to find
the correct location for their laboratories. Such locations exist
at Pinjarra Hills and Samford, of the outskirts of Brisbane.
Yours sincerely,
Long Pocket Concerned Residents Group
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