Click photo to enlarge
Lucy Lawless leaves Parliament with the boarding pass she
hoped to deliver to Prime Minister John Key along with a
cheque to pay his airfare to Copenhagen for climate talks.
Photo by NZPA.
Lucy Lawless and Jim Salinger only got as far as the
Beehive front desk when attempting to give Prime Minister John
Key a boarding pass to Copenhagen today.
Representing Greenpeace, the actress and climate scientist
were responding to Mr Key's decision not to attend an
international climate change meeting in Copenhagen, Denmark,
next month.
They arrived at Parliament with flowers, an over-sized
boarding pass and a cheque for $4781, raised from sausage
sizzles and cake stalls, to put towards the Prime Minister's
air fare.
They waited, along with gathered media, while a Beehive
staffer phoned Mr Key's office to say he had visitors, only
to be told the Prime Minister was otherwise engaged.
After another attempt was made to see Mr Key -- and declined,
along with the cheque -- the pair had to make do with leaving
the flowers and boarding pass with security staff.
"He's a man, he can change his mind," said a hopeful Lawless.
Mr Key argued yesterday it was clear no binding treaty would
be signed in Copenhagen -- despite earlier talk of an
international resolution being on the cards -- and that
Environment Minister Nick Smith would be New Zealand's
representative there.
Lawless and Dr Salinger said progress would only be made
towards reducing greenhouse gas emissions on an international
scale if heads of state made it happen.
Sending bureaucrats or people representing heads of state was
a cop-out.
Mr Key later said he had not been given warning about the
visit, and shrugged off questions about why he didn't meet
the pair.
"I was probably out getting lunch or something."
Dr Salinger said the unspent $4781 was likely to be referred
back to Greenpeace for it to put towards its campaign to
raise New Zealand's greenhouse emissions target.
