The parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment, Dr Jan Wright, has come out in favour of the greater use of the poison 1080 to protect forests from possums, rats and stoats.

Dr Wright said she was surprised with the findings of a new investigation because she had expected to see bigger risks from the poison.

"We measured 1080 against other criteria; and were surprised as to how well it did considering the controversy over it.

"I didn't really expect it to be extremely bad because it wouldn't make sense that people had continued using it, if it was very bad. But I didn’t expect it to be as good as it was." 

 Dr Wright's findings go on to promote the use of 1080 to help minimize problems for our native wildlife from the threat of introduced predators.

The kill rate for possum, using 1080, is above 90 per cent, and are close to 100 per cent for rats.

But United Future leader Peter Dunne doesn't agree.

He says the report is an urban beat-up, which fails to get to the heart of what is happening in rural and provincial communities.

Peter Dunne says 1080 has been used for 50 years and not fixed the pest problem, so the recommendation that it should be used more, is nonsense.

"I think that it is an outdated solution, it's not working; and I think that the suggestion from the parliamentary commissioners report that we need to be doing more of it; a recommendation that I know the governments already rejected just simply misses the point.

"I think what we've got to be doing it is investing more in alternatives, I think we've got to be taking head of the public opposition and I think we've got to be trying to bring our treatment of our major pest problem into the 21st century rather then relying on methods that failed in the 20th century." 

Many farmers and environmental groups have rallied in support of the report but there are critics who believe the report is simply pushing a corporate agenda. Some believe that the risks of secondary poisoning, and the risk of losing New Zealand's clean green image, overpowers any positives that Dr Wright may have found.

Dr Wright agrees that tal talking about how bad the use of poison is overseas would damage NZ's clean green image but she would hoped that people weren’t doing that. 

"But if the forest it damaged and we loose that, and so the forest deteriorates and there’s is no dawn chorus, then that is pretty bad for a clean and green New Zealand too.

"And if the only place you can see a kiwi is in a zoo, and you have to tell your tourists that there are no kiwis left on the mainland because we let them all get killed, then that’s not a good look either."

Critics argue more thought should have been put into the possibility of new trapping systems, and allowing more hunting instead. But Dr Wright says she has addressed these possibilities in her report and her findings still welcomed 1080 as the best choice at this point.

"I actually have a recommendation for Trapping for possum fur, with suggestions about how that might be enhanced. But just controlling possums through trapping doesn’t actually help with conservation.

"What I am concerned about are the large areas where nothing is being done and these pests are running supreme. You are just not going to get in there with traps.

"It's just too expensive, too rugged and too big an area. It’s just not going to happen."