Detoxification, displacement and deferral: the democratic failures of GM regulation

The implied promise of liberal democracies in a state of pluralism is that difference will be addressed. This article argues that this promise has not been met in the case of GM regulation, despite 30 years of discussion and debate. Rather than attribute this failure to the insurmountable logic of uncertainty, this article blames it on the strategies of detoxification, displacement and deferral employed by the legislature and the Gene Technology Regulator to avoid addressing substantive issues of social meaning in relation to GM technology. The article concludes that the Gene Technology Regulator has failed to fulfil the broad legislative mandate granted under the Gene Technology Act 2000 (Cth), thereby rendering the Regulator's position largely irrelevant.