It's time for New Zealanders who oppose the lifting of the GE moratorium to stand up and be counted. A poll on 13 July showed that 54% of us want it to remain in place, and only 39% agree to it being lifted. I want that 54% of the population to have a chance to register their protest so I have started a nation-wide petition, attached to this email.

The petition is also available on http://www.madge.net.nz/doclibrary/Petitionform.doc

The government has seen street marches attended by thousands, received many hundreds of submissions, and other communications, all giving the message that New Zealanders don't want the moratorium lifted, but it seems that with the date of the moratorium closing in on us, it is time to make one last effort to show the extent of public opposition towards GE release.

I am writing to ask whether you will distribute the petition as widely as possible, so as to collect enough signatures to make a real impact on the government.

If your organisation is planning a mailout to members, perhaps you would be kind enough to include a copy of the petition as an insert. Please phone me any time to discuss this.

Please would you post or fax the form to anyone you think would be supportive or send it as an email attachment, asking recipients to collect signatures, and to distribute it further.

The petition has already received support from existing groups working against GE such as MAdGE, GE-Free NZ, Greenpeace, the Green Party, and others. Thousands of copies of the form will be mailed out this week, and the mailouts will continue throughout the next weeks.

I am doing the petition as an individual, not as a representative of any group.

Your help would be very much appreciated.

Susan Grimsdell (09) 377 8789, 021 163 7219 10F, 1 Emily Place, Auckland 1001

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Some good ideas for collecting signatures are:

--go to flea markets where there are crowds of people who are usually relaxed and have time to stop and sign. Give blank forms to anyone who expresses strong interest so that they can take the form and distribute it to their contacts, or else take it to their work and get signatures.

--spend an hour or so at rush hour at places where there is a traffic jam, getting signatures from drivers and also asking them to take blank forms if they think they can distribute them.

--visit local shops, businesses, libraries, school staffrooms, asking if you can leave a few copies of the form for people to sign. When leaving forms in public places, such as shops, make a clipboard by cutting out a piece of cardboard A4 size and attaching the petition forms to it with a rubber band.

--look in the yellow pages and pick out businesses you think might be interested, and fax a copy of the form to them.

--collect signatures in busy streets, at sports or other public events, anywhere where there are crowds of people.