The Ban 1080 Party has announced Mike Downward will stand for the Coromandel seat in September's general election.

Mike sits at number one on list of the nine-member party and will co-lead with founder Bill Wallace.

Mike Downward.

The party formed this year in response to the Department of Conservation's aerial distribution of the poison sodium monofluoroacetate, commonly known as 1080.

Mike is extremely proud to stand for the Ban 1080 Party in the Coromandel electorate and believes its constituents deserve the respect of not 'having their land poisoned”.

'I cannot understand why ‘pure' New Zealand drops massive amounts of 1080 poison on our land and into our waterways,” he says.

'Our party has deep concerns about DOC's indiscriminate aerial drops, which is a major issue for the Coromandel region.”

For the last six years Mike has been involved in local government and was deputy mayor of Taupo for the last three.

He describes this period as working in an environment of 'major change as we faced the recession and central Government legislation amendments”.

Mike attempted to stop aerial drops while working within local government but 'came up against a brick wall, as regional government holds all the cards”.

'I am a long-time advocate against mass aerial dropping of 1080 on our so-called inaccessible country.

'I have grown up in these remote areas of this incredible country to appreciate and love all of its beauty.”

The focus of Ban 1080 Party policy is to develop alternate solutions that would put an end to DOC's aerial 1080 poison programme.

It also would look to develop a science-based and measurable programme that would include species specific protection plans, targeted pest control using people not poison, and conservation programmes involving the community.

Co-leader Bill Wallace says rising anger in provincial regions of New Zealand over 1080 has now reached a tipping point.

He describes aerial drops as a 'scatter gun approach that it not working” and does not choose which animals it harms.

'As well as pests, 1080 kills native birds like robins, tits, ruru (morepork), kea and livestock, all of which eat the poison,” says Bill.

'There are also deadly secondary effects as it travels down the food chain - pets and working dogs die from eating poisoned animals.”

Bill says with DOC about to undertake the largest 1080 poison drop in its history the creation of a political party to take this issue to the polls has become an urgent matter.

Since its formation in June the party has attracted more than 1300 members.

For more information visit: www.ban1080.co.nz or www.facebook.com/ban1080

Sodium monofluoroacetate or 1080 is a metabolic poison with no known antidote that is extremely toxic to all air breathing organisms.

It blocks the ability of muscles and organs to absorb energy from food and results in death. For birds it can take hours to die and up to four days for large mammals.

New Zealand is the world's largest consumer of 1080. The poison is banned or restricted in most other countries .

DOC's Battle for the Birds plans to spread 1080 poison over a million hectares of New Zealand's wilderness this year in response to possible heavy beech seeding in South Island forests.