Cancelling the Lord of the Rings night-time festival in Wellington is an hysterical over-reaction to the threat of terrorism, Green MP Keith Locke said today.

"This terrorist scenario is as fanciful as anything Professor Tolkien came up with," said Mr Locke.

"There's more chance of Peter Jackson being kidnapped by orcs than of a Wellington street party being attacked by a terrorist hit-squad.

"Since September 11 the incidences of terrorism have been essentially domestic - as we saw in Moscow recently, or in Bali, where all the suspects appear to be local Indonesians.

"It is inane to think there is anything like a similar domestic terrorist threat here. The possibility is so remote that we would be silly to restrict our traditional way of life.

"If the aim of terrorism is to intimidate people, then to cancel a major social event in New Zealand would be to give in to intimidation.

"The more we surrender to fears of terrorism, the more we acknowledge the power of terrorism and - in a sense - hand a victory to the perpetrators of such awful deeds that they could never otherwise achieve."

ENDS

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