Code brown: Flotilla of inflatable poos launched by water protesters

Fifty inflatable poos have been floated on the Waikato River to protest against the Government's new freshwater standards.

Campaign group Action Station organised the stunt in advance of a meeting of environmentally conscious National Party members.

The Action Station protesters yelled, "Cut the crap, National", as the poo emojis drifted on Lake Ohakuri.

Action Station campaigner Laura O'Connell-Rapira said the proposed new water standards would not improve the quality and instead result in more ecoli from "poo and wee" in the water.

"We decided to have some fun with the emojis to illustrate our point, but this is not a light hearted issue," she said.

"The Government is being clever with words around water standards but we would rather they cleaned up our rivers.

"We are now planning to do the same thing in Wellington Harbour."

A breakfast for the BlueGreens, a group of environment-concerned National Party members, is being held on Sunday morning at Wairakei Resort as part of a weekend long National Party conference.

Action Station said the breakfast would be hosted by environment minister Nick Smith, conservation minister Maggie Barry and climate minister Paula Bennett.

The protest group believed the ministers needed to take some leadership on freshwater, which had turned to "crap" in the space of a generation.

Action Station is now selling the inflatable poos on TradeMe.

Photo / Action Stations