Massage machine soothes PM's cares away

By Audrey Young

Jenny Shipley was happy to stumble across a portable back massager in a Manukau shopping mall yesterday and used it to soothe her campaign tensions.

After several hours working the crowds at Ellerslie Flower Show and Southmall in Manurewa, as well as coping with a heavy cold, the little mechanical levers gave welcome relief.

"I might never leave," the Prime Minister said as the artificial arms worked their way down her back.

Asked if they were as good as her husband, Burton, she said: "I know you'll print it if I said it, so I'm not going to say it."

At the garden show, Mrs Shipley announced that the Government would give $100,000 to create a special garden for threatened species in the Botanic Gardens in Manurewa - where the show is now held.

The garden would mark the thanks of the Government to Auckland for hosting Apec in September.

The Auckland Mayoral Forum had been asked to decide the best way to fund a lasting project for the region, she said. She was advised that there were 170 endangered plants in the Auckland conservancy.

The flower show was not without its drama. Returning to heckle Mrs Shipley were two of the protesters thrown out of the National Party campaign launch on October 31, Jim Gladwin and Phil Chase, from the Water Pressure Group.

Mrs Shipley was also confronted by Greenpeace protesters at Southmall who claimed National was "a fossil party" in its approach to climate change.