Central Government has recently confirmed that responsibility and costs fall onto local government and local land owners if genetically engineered crops contaminate natural crops or the environment and have to be cleaned up. A letter from the Minister for the Environment indicates that when or if contamination occurs it will be the person affected by the ”pollution” not the ”polluter” who will pay. These concerns have been raised by a group of councils worried about their vulnerability on behalf of ratepayers generally, as a result of the way Hazardous Substances and New Oganisms (HSNO) Act has been written.