Puzzle over hoarding switch

Mystery surrounds the changing of a billboard near Auckland Airport - featuring a scantily clad model - just days before Apec leaders arrived.

Instead, a sign depicting faces of the leaders and the words "who will throw the first punch" has been erected.

Both signs advertise New Zealand Herald coverage of Apec - but the newspaper was not told of Tuesday's change.

Paul Kenny, sales manager for the outdoor advertising company Look, said a member of the Airport Company board had complained the sign was not suitable.

A contract between Look and the airport meant any advertising they did not approve of had to be removed, so the sign was swapped.

The chief executive of the Airport Company, John Goulter, said he knew why the sign had been changed but would not explain.

The airport board chairman, Wayne Boyd, said he would expect to know if a board member had complained but he had heard nothing about it: "It's news to me, the entire thing."

Rumours that the Prime Minister, Jenny Shipley, had complained about the sign were denied by her office and by Mr Goulter.

The New Zealand Herald's chief executive, John Sanders, said it was speculation that the advertising company had been asked to change the sign.

But if that was found to be the case "then we would want to ask a few more questions."

The sign, he said, was reasonable because it was a comment about who was really making money out of the summit.