West Coast anti-1080 campaigners besmirched by the blackmail threat by an Auckland businessman who has an interest in alternative forms of pest control, say they believe they are due an apology.
Some on the Coast were interrogated and finger-printed and had their computers searched during the inquiry. However, police say they would not be apologising for the way they conducted their inquiry.
Westland anti-1080 group Te Whare o te Kaitiaki Ngahere spokesman Danny Lane, of Hari Hari, said he was visited twice without warning by police in the course of Operation Concord.
He agreed to a request for fingerprints on their second visit, but declined to give a DNA sample or hand over his computer.
The fallout was the deliberate stigmatisation on the anti-1080 movement, Mr Lane said.
"We all told them that it (the threat) would have had to come from the inside. It has. I'm glad they caught the guy. We don't condone those actions. The Government put it out that it would have been a person who was against 1080 that was not the case."
Mr Lane said anti-1080 campaigners would like an apology "because of that stigma" and they had been tarred with the same brush.
The threat of 1080 to the food chain in this case infant milk powder was the reason people such as himself were opposed to the use of the poison.
"Nobody on our side would have made that (threat) because that's what we're trying to stop happening.
"This toxin is a poison we should have banned in this country. John Key called this thing a terrorist threat. That means this toxin is a terrorist weapon ... he's still allowing it to be spread all over our forests in an indiscriminate way," Mr Lane said.
Kumara Environmental Action member Niky Calcott wondered if someone else other than a businessman had been arrested if he would have "put his hand up".
"Everyone was under suspicion. What it does mean is that our people who are in the pest control industry, are they really honest and reliable? That's what it comes down to."
The whole case was a shame because the cyanide-based poison Feratox was a much better alternative to 1080, Ms Calcott said.
Farmers Against Ten Eighty spokeswoman Mary Molloy, of Hari Hari, said the court lifting suppression on Jeremy Hamish Kerr's name was not before time. "That takes the pressure off a lot of people both inside and outside the poison industry," Mrs Molloy said.
"I think the people who were investigated by the police who had their DNA and fingerprints taken ... their homes searched, deserve an apology.
"The anti-1080 movement on the whole has been trying to tell people that 1080 is dangerous and (the movement) is not likely to do anything to endanger other people."
Mrs Molloy said she was not personally interviewed by police but her husband, friends, family and associates were.
A spokesman at police national headquarters said they would not be making "public apologies for using lawful steps" needed to investigate a very serious offence.
"We have made it clear from the outset that we will not discuss any specific individuals who Operation Concord may have sought information from, or the reasons they might have been of interest to us," the spokesman said.
Police approached over 60 "significant persons of interest" and considered more than 2600 people during the inquiry.
- By Brendon McMahon of the Greymouth Star
