Pursuant to section 26 of the Hazardous Substances and New Organisms Act 1996 (“HSNO Act”), the Environmental Protection Authority hereby determines that

eukaryotic organisms (domain Eukaryota) that are not new, prohibited, or unwanted organisms under either the HSNO Act, or the Biosecurity Act 1993, specifically, organisms that:

• were present in New Zealand immediately before 29 July 1998;
• have not been prescribed as risk species;
• have not been approved to be held in containment or released with controls;
• have not previously been genetically modified;
• are not members of species that have been eradicated from New Zealand;
• are not named as prohibited organisms in Schedule 2 of the HSNO Act;
• are not unwanted organisms as defined in section 2 of the Biosecurity Act 1993;

and that are treated with externally applied double-stranded RNA molecules to induce a small interfering RNA (siRNA) response do not fulfil the definition of genetically modified organisms detailed in the HSNO Act and therefore are not new organisms for the purposes of the HSNO Act.

Dated at Wellington this 1st day of May 2018.

Dr LOUISE MALONE, Chair, Decision-making Committee of the Authority.