SHOWBIZ
Lucy Lawless Snubbed By NZ Prime Minister
2009-11-18 10:53am
Actress Lucy Lawless has failed in a bid to deliver a $5500 cheque to New Zealand Prime Minister John Key to fund an airfare to Copenhagen to attend the world climate change summit.
Mr Key continues to shun a plea from United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon for all world leaders to attend the conference to help ensure a strong agreement on a new climate treaty is reached.
The Auckland-based celebrity, made famous by her lead role in the TV series "Xena Warrior Princess", accompanied high-profile climate scientist Jim Salinger to Parliament to try to deliver the money raised from the public, a giant boarding pass and a bunch of flowers.
They are part of a Greenpeace-led campaign to get New Zealand to cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 40 percent by 2020, in contrast to the Government's conditional 10 to 20 percent target.
They were turned away at the Parliament reception because they had no appointment, but the spectacle of them trying to negotiate access via a receptionist and security guards provided a photo opportunity for their campaign
Parliamentary security eventually offered to deliver the boarding pass and flowers, but declined to pass on the cheque.
The pair waited instead on the steps to Parliament in the hope Mr Key would detour a few metres on his way to the debating chamber to meet them, but the prime minister would not oblige.
He told journalists there had been no direct approach to his office for a meeting and he was probably out having lunch when they called at the Beehive.
He said New Zealand had the best representation it could at Copenhagen in Climate Change Minister Nick Smith and his associate Tim Groser and he did not think a lot would be gained from him going when he did not think a deal would be signed.
"There is a 95 percent probability I won't go, there's a tiny window of opportunity, but at the moment I think that's unlikely," Mr Key said.
However, Lawless said making predictions of no deal would become a self-fulfilling prophesy, and she urged Mr Key to change his mind.
She was upset that New Zealand was being called a laggard when 160,000 New Zealanders had signed on to the 40 percent cut campaign.
"We are really out of time; we have got to crack on to this, the sooner the better."
She denied the visit was a publicity stunt: "I really thought he might come down."
Dr Salinger said having world leaders at the summit as well as ministers would make it easier to get a deal done because they had the power to make decisions on the spot.
The Kyoto Potocol was signed at the last minute, he said.
It would have only taken two minutes of Mr Keys' time to meet them over the "most critical issue facing the planet".
The rising temperatures and sea levels associated with global warming could affect Mr Key, he added in reference to his holiday home at Omaha Beach.
"He has a house that's exposed so I would be very concerned if I was him"
(c) Newsroom 2009