‘1080’ pellets thrown into Parliament
Several likely-fake 1080 pellets have been thrown into Parliament.
The pellets made it through grating into an antechamber just before the main doors onto the first-floor foyer, just as politicians were due to walk through to the House for question time yesterday afternoon.
A security guard let a man in a hazmat suit into the antechamber to collect the pellets, which were accompanied by several dead birds.
A Parliamentary staffer later said she believed the pellets were replica 1080 – not real ones.
Police and Department of Conservation staff attended the scene.
National Leader Simon Bridges said New Zealand had a long history of protest but that sort of action took it too far.
Green co-leader Marama Davidson said the protesters had ‘‘valid concerns’’ but it wasn’t the type of protest action she would take.
‘‘We need to listen, and we need to have community-led conversations about this. They are trying to be heard, and we will need to keep listening.’’
Anti-1080 protesters marched on Parliament in their hundreds on Saturday calling for an end to the use of the pesticide. It was part of a nationwide series of protests attended by thousands.
Some of the protesters at Parliament wore skull and crossbones capes, chemical hazard suits and masks while others dressed in black with white crosses to symbolise the loss of the wildlife they say was killed by the poison. A small number have camped out on Parliament’s front lawn since then, writing messages in chalk on the border of Parliament’s grounds.
The Department of Conservation, Federated Farmers, and Forest and Bird all support the use of 1080.