Janet Rice (Victoria, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I seek leave to amend general business notice of motion No. 959 standing in my name for today, relating to glyphosate, before asking that it be taken as a formal motion.

Leave granted.

I move the motion as amended:

That the Senate:

(a) notes that:

  (i) the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), the specialised cancer agency of the World Health Organization, has listed glyphosate as "probably carcinogenic to humans",

  (ii) a Californian Superior Court jury has ordered Monsanto pay $39 million in compensatory damages, and $250 million in punitive damages to former grounds keeper, Mr DeWayne Johnson on the grounds that their glyphosate product, Roundup, contributed to his non-Hodgkin's lymphoma,

  (iii) this follows a review by the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority (APVMA) of glyphosate, following the IARC finding, which "found no grounds to place it under formal reconsideration", and

  (iv) glyphosate is still widely-used in Australian agricultural, gardening, grounds-keeping and land management environments; and

(b) calls on the Federal Government to immediately request the APVMA to conduct a formal review of glyphosate, and request Monsanto (now Bayer AG) to make all internal scientific documentation, relating to the carcinogenicity of glyphosate, publically available.