RACHEL PINDER
It's been nearly three months since a petition of 13,588 signatures to replace the iconic dolphins at Napier's Marineland was handed to Labour list MP Russell Fairbrother to table in parliament, and still nothing has been done.
Napier City councillor Harry Lawson and 13 other supporters made the trip down to Wellington to hand over the petition to Mr Fairbrother on June 28.
A letter sent to petition campaigner Ron Rowe from parliamentary officer Tracey Rayner a month later indicated that Mr Fairbrother's office had not forwarded the petition to the office of the clerk of the House of Representatives, but instead had sent it to Napier Mayor Barbara Arnott.
Mr Lawson says he had a meeting with Barbara Arnott and Napier City Council's chief executive officer Neil Taylor on Wednesday last week, where they both confirmed this was not the case and Russell Fairbrother had not been in contact with them about it either.
Mr Lawson sent several e-mails to find out the whereabouts of the petition, but he had no response from Mr Fairbrother.
He telephoned Mr Fairbrother's executive assistant Jason Smith, who assured cr Lawson he would have a prompt response, but that was three weeks ago.
"The 13,588 signature petition should have been presented to parliament. It is frustrating to find nearly 10 weeks later it has not been presented as requested," Mr Lawson said.
But Mr Fairbrother said it has been delayed because he is checking all the signatures to make sure they are valid.
He said he needed to check all the names and addresses against the electoral roll to confirm they are genuine, as he would not be able to present it to parliament with fictitious signatures.
Mr Fairbrother said he was about halfway through and was fitting it in around work commitments.
He also confirmed he had advised Mr Lawson to present the petition to Napier Mayor Barbara Arnott, as no progress could be made until the city council applied to the conservation minister to acquire a permit to replace the dolphin Shona, who died in April.
But Mrs Arnott has previously said the council's hands were tied by Government restrictions on replacing dolphins, unless the petition forced MPs to change their minds.
During June's full council meeting, councillors decided to wait for the Government's response to a request for funding from the petition, and will include that response in their consideration of Marineland's future.
Another petition against replacing the dolphins has been set up by Napier resident Dave Head, and animal rights activists are continuing their fight against keeping dolphins in activity.
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