Anti-whaling protest staged outside PM's office

Photo / Supplied

Greenpeace has brought anti-whaling protest back on to New Zealand soil, staging a mock-up of Prime Minister John Key harpooning a whale outside his Auckland electorate office.

New Zealand, alongside Australia, met with the International Whaling Commission in Florida this month for negotiations about whaling in the southern seas, which Japan continues under the label "scientific research".

A New Zealander, Sea Shepherd activist Peter Bethune, is also in jail in Japan awaiting trial for trespassing after he boarded a Japanese ship to "make a citizen's arrest" following a series of high-seas clashes between activists and whalers.

Greenpeace New Zealand oceans campaigner Karli Thomas said the protest outside Mr Key's Kumeu electorate office had been about New Zealand's support of a proposal that would restart commercial whaling, banned since 1986.

A plan put forward at the IWC meeting last week, supported by New Zealand delegates, would allow Japan, Norway and Iceland to openly hunt whales but aim to reduce the total catch over the next 10 years.

"New Zealand must save the whales, not the whalers. New Zealanders need to stand up and say no to a Government that is prepared to undermine the most important protection whales have," Ms Thomas said.

Australia, meanwhile, had set a deadline for Japan to stop whaling, threatening to take the country to international court, the BBC reported.

"If that fails - and I'm saying this very bluntly ... - if that fails, then we will initiate that court action before the commencement of the whaling season in November 2010," said Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd last month.

Ms Thomas said New Zealand should follow Australia's lead and reject the IWC proposal.

"Over the years New Zealand has become one of the strongest defenders of whale conservation. But if this proposal goes ahead we'll be undermining the most important protection the whales have - the moratorium on commercial whaling," she said.

"Our national values are under increasing attack by the Government. First, they propose opening up precious conservation land to mining and are now supporting a deal that would legitimise commercial whaling. What's next on the list? Nuclear ships in our harbours?"

Mr Key's office has not yet commented on the protest.

New Zealand's IWC representative, Sir Geoffrey Palmer, defended the proposal last week, saying it plugged "a great big loophole" in the 1986 moratorium that allowed whaling to continue self-regulated under a scientific guise.

Bringing it under international control would be an "enormous piece of progress", Sir Geoffrey said.

- NZHERALD STAFF