KEY POINTS:
The Government is likely to resist pressure to ban the Fijian team from next year's international rugby sevens tournament in Wellington.
United Future leader Peter Dunne said yesterday sporting sanctions against Fiji were virtually toothless if they didn't stop the sevens team coming to New Zealand.
But the Government will probably consider other factors and let the Fijians in.
Mr Dunne picketed against Fiji's participation in the annual sevens event in 2001, after the 2000 coup, and said he was prepared to do so again.
"If they come, the Fijian authorities will hail that as a great victory - particularly because the sevens are so important to them," Mr Dunne said.
"It makes our brave words look rather hollow."
The Greens backed Mr Dunne's call, but the Government looks unlikely to agree.
It went through an identical argument in 2001, when sporting sanctions were eventually sidestepped to let Fiji's sevens team come to New Zealand.
At the time the Government was accused of bowing to pressure from the Rugby Union.
But it said there was a risk New Zealand would lose the hosting rights for the tournament if it denied entry to the Fijians.
Minister for Sport Trevor Mallard yesterday again raised that possibility when asked about Mr Dunne's renewed call for a ban.
"The Government could take a decision to send the IRB sevens to Australia or something like that," Mr Mallard said.
"But its view is that where it is something that's arranged internationally, it should continue."
Any individuals who were involved with the coup would not be denied visas to enter New Zealand.
The captain of the Fiji sevens team, Dale Tonawai, is a soldier, and was a member of the armed platoon sent to ousted Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase's house on Wednesday.
Mr Mallard said banning the Fijian team would be "one step too far", as it would punish New Zealand, not Fiji.
National's sport spokesman, Murray McCully, yesterday said he also understood tournament hosting rights could be lost if the Fijians were banned.
"In principle, we want to see sanctions taken on every possible front to send the strongest possible message to the illegal Fijian regime," he said.
"We are open to the idea of sanctions against the whole Fijian team as long as it doesn't end up boomeranging and causing loss of the hosting rights."
