Animal rights protesters disrupt PM’s visit
Animal rights protesters provided the only hiccup of the day as Prime Minister Bill English visited Christchurch on Thursday.
English’s first stop in the Garden City was at Holmes Solutions, a specialist engineering firm in Hornby, west of the city centre. It in develops and tests complex engineering products for high-risk industries.
English assessed a seismicshake table currently being used to test the integrity of large fans being installed in the new Justice Precinct in central Christchurch.
Before meeting with two graduate mechanical engineers, English was taken into a closed door presentation where he was shown specialist projects for clients.
About 10.30am, English arrived at the under-construction acute services building at Christchurch Hospital, where he was met by Minister of Health Jonathan Coleman and members of the Canterbury District Health Board.
The tour group was taken to the top floor of the new building to check out the new helicopter pad.
Once it is opened, patients will no longer have to be taken by ambulance from the current pad in Hagley Park.
From there, the prime minister headed to a cafe with some of his MPs.
After exchanging pleasantries about gardening and farming with the cafe’s patrons, English tucked himself away in a corner with Coleman, Greater Christchurch Regeneration Minister Nicky Wagner and Port Hills MP Nuk Korako.
The politicians kept their heads together for about a half hour before heading across the carpark and into a crowd of blue-clad National supporters in Colombo shopping centre.
It was here where a group of animal rights protesters provided the excitement for the day when the leader of their group tried to stand behind English with a sign The protesting factory farming while he was giving a speech.
Shanti Ahluwalia was passed to security by Wagner before being dragged out of the crowd and thrown out of the shopping centre.
English, who was midway through a speech at the time, laughed the incident off before claiming animal welfare was something the Government had ’’really focused on’’.
‘‘We have to turn the idea of animal welfare into practical steps and we have done that.’’
Ahluwalia, one of five protesters at the event, said he thought being thrown out of the shopping centre was ‘‘over the top’’.
‘‘Everyone beforehand was instructed to stay peaceful and passive, and apparently that wasn’t enough for them so they decided to get physical with us anyway.’’
Ahluwalia said he was wanting to call attention to the fact the Government was ignoring animals and their suffering on factory farms.
Earlier, Danielle Gregan had also questioned English about the Government’s animal welfare policies.
The registered nurse and activist said she ‘‘wasn’t overly satisfied’’ with English’s response, which talked about standards the Government had put in which Gregan described as behind the rest of the world.
‘‘The Government talks about these new standards that they’ve put in but they’re such the bare minimum that it’s like, well shouldn’t we be striving for the best?’’
The rest of the visit went smoothly for English as he moved through a sea of supporters in blue, shaking hands and taking endless pictures.
English fronted up to media for a few questions on Christchurch health services (‘‘In 18 months to two years, you’re going to see a completely rebuilt health system here in Christchurch’’), the Christ Church Cathedral (‘‘They do need to make a decision’’) and that picture of rough sleepers under a National billboard (‘‘Part of delivering for New Zealanders is dealing with the problem of rough sleepers’’).
Then, with a last hand shake and photo, English was off to prepare for last night’s big debate.