Anti-whalers plan 'forum' in Parliament Grounds

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Anti-whaling mavericks Sea Shepherd are planning to bring their message from the Southern Ocean to Parliament Grounds today.

"The whale war has come ashore," spokesman Bill Watson said.

Protest vessel MV Steve Irwin is due at Queens Wharf tonight. However an event planned by supporters for Parliament, earlier in the day, was a "forum" not a demonstration, he said. "It's an open discussion with a number of ... individuals that have a concern for the future of the oceans."

Groups must get permission from Speaker Lockwood Smith before holding events in Parliament Grounds. The Green Party has made a request for a whaling forum, which Sea Shepherd will attend.

A spokesman for Foreign Affairs Minister Murray McCully said it was "entirely a matter for the Speaker to determine".

Both Te Papa and Victoria University Maori Students Association had turned down requests this week to host the forum, Mr Watson said. "We feel they have been gotten to by somebody. Doors that were previously open suddenly closed on us."

Te Papa spokeswoman Jane Keig said the request came too late.

"We are very busy with Pompeii and the arts festival. It's likely to be fairly big. We would have needed a couple of weeks' notice at least."

The Sea Shepherd Conservation Group has battled the Japanese whaling fleet in the Southern Ocean for the past three months.

On January 6, the New Zealand-built Ady Gil was hit by a Japanese whaling ship and eventually sank. The whalers and protesters blamed each other for the crash.

Ady Gil skipper Pete Bethune, 44, boarded the Japanese-flagged Shonan Maru II on February 15. He allegedly climbed on to the ship from a jet ski, to make a citizen's arrest of the Japanese ship's captain, for what he said was the attempted murder of his six crew. He was arrested when the ship reached Tokyo.

The Green Party has urged the Government to use the Maritime Crimes Act to free Mr Bethune. The Government says he will have to go through the Japanese legal system.

- © Fairfax NZ News