Waihopai Valley spybase protest

DEREK FLYNN/Fairfax NZ

NO LOOKING BACK: Adrian Leason, one of the Waihopai Three that slashed the Dome in 2008, holds a banner outside the base's front gate.

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Protesters of the government spy base in the Waihopai Valley gathered in the centre of Blenheim today before moving their protest to the base.

About 40 people converged to hear speeches from Marlborough Green MP Steffan Browning, veteran protester John Minto, and one of the Waihopai Three, Adrian Leason, who was part of a group who punctured one of the inflatable domes at the facility in 2008.

Before leaving for the base, the group marched through town yelling slogans and a protest song to the tune of Pink Floyd's Another Brick in the Wall.

The protest was organised by the Anti-Bases Campaign.

The theme of this year's protest was anti-war and the highlighting the connection between the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) and the United States military.

The crowd applauded any reference to the 2008 slashing of the inflatable dome which covered one of the satellite dishes at the spy base.

Murray Horton, of the Anti-Bases Campaign, called the actions of the Waihopai Three ''heroic'' and said the money spent on the base each year was a ''criminal waste of money''.

Mr Leason, a teacher, recounted the preparation he, Dominican friar Peter Murnane and farmer Sam Land undertook before cutting through the base's electric fence and slashing the dome with a sickle, including conducting time trials beforehand.

At the spy base, Mr Minto said it was important to come back to the spy base every year because ''this is us speaking truth to power''.

As the debate over the base continued more people understood what the base was doing, he said.

The protest was not met with any opposition except for one man in a car who called the protesters ''weirdos'' and two men who were at the spy base.

The men hoped to join counter-protesters who appeared at the spy base at last year's protest, but they did not turn up.

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