Environmental group Friends of Sherwood seek referendum on 1080

An anti-1080 protest in Whanganui in September. Photo / Bevan Conley

The same environmental group that won a temporary stop to a 1080 poison drop on Auckland's Hunua Range is seeking enough signatures to trigger a referendum on its prohibition completely.

Friends of Sherwood has proposed a citizens initiated referendum that would ban all "inhumane poisons" including 1080 because of the suffering they cause animals.

Parliament's Clerk of the House is seeking comment on the proposed wording of the question by January 11 next year before the group is able to officially launch its bid to obtain enough signatures to begin the process for a non-binding referendum.

It needs to collect 10 per cent of the total number of registered voters, in hard copy, within 12 months.

A spokesman for the Clerk of the House said this would represent around 400,000 signatures.

The referendums are not initiated often and are seldom successful.

The last was in 2012, initiated by Roy Reid and asking people whether they supported the sell-off of state owned assets.

Despite this, Tricia Cheel of Friends of Sherwood, was optimistic the group would gather enough signatures.

"When people realise the extent of the suffering that's going on ... I don't think we're going to have trouble even getting 400,000 signatures," she said.

"We simply cannot condone this level of cruelty under any circumstances."

The Friends of Sherwood went to the Environment Court in September and won a court injunction temporarily suspending a plan by Auckland Council to drop 1080 poison in the Hunua Ranges.

But in a later judgment, the court allowed it to go ahead, saying it was not persuaded that there was likely to be serious harm to the environment if the drop went ahead.