Review after protesters scale Parliament roof

Four Greenpeace activists who scaled the roof of Parliament in a climate change protest have been charged with trespassing.

The two men and two women were arrested after abseiling down about 5pm yesterday. Trespass carries a maximum sentence of three months imprisonment.

Parliamentary Security will lead a review into how the group got on to the third-floor ledge, about 6.30am yesterday, and assembled a solar panel array.

They also draped a banner across Parliament House picturing Prime Minister John Key, captioned ‘‘Cut pollution, create jobs? Yeah, nah.’’

A Greenpeace spokeswoman said the protest was about climate pollution ‘‘spiralling out of control’’ under the National Government.

Twenty years ago protesters had also installed solar panels, and Greenpeace chief policy adviser Nathan Argent said it was disappointing that in two decades nothing had changed.

Speaker David Carter said the protesters posed a ‘‘serious risk’’ to Parliament.

He said he didn’t expect that scaffolding around Parliament for maintenance work, to be a risk but ‘‘in hindsight we’ve got to be prepared for any of these sorts of attacks’’.

Key said the security breach raised some ‘‘very good questions’’.

‘‘It shows a security weakness and that has to be looked at.’’

He also took issue with the tactics of the protesters. ‘‘Greenpeace would expect the New Zealand Government to obey the laws when it comes to the environment. We expect them to obey the law when it comes to their legal right to protest.’’

Inspector Tony Bernards said police decided it was too risky to try to arrest the group from their position on the ledge, and elected to let them come down later in the day.

Police said last night that the four had been charged and released from custody and would appear in court at a later date.