Giant pandas are in hot demand internationally and there’s a long line of countries waiting to get their hands on a pair.

Prime Minister John Key opened the door to taxpayer funding for the Wellington Zoo acquisition.

The Wellington City Council has been debating the idea, though there has been some concern the cost to bring the animals to New Zealand would outweigh the benefits. “We don’t want to commit ratepayers to something that might not be affordable but we want to explore the opportunity fully because it might be a really good one”, Justin Lester says.

The NZ Herald reported Mr Key was impressed with the visitor response to Adelaide Zoo’s breeding pair Fu Ni and Wang Wang.

“The government would consider helping with the cost, but it wouldn’t be a massive amount, and it’s not even known yet whether any pandas could be obtained”, Mr Key said.

Key dismissed comments from Wellington City Councillor Paul Eagle that the costs would have risen to $100m, but it was still “an bad lot” of money. The councillor points to a 2011 scoping study (abandoned after the Christchurch quakes saw a change of focus) that put the cost of housing the pandas at the zoo at $28 million.

There are also other priorities for the council such as the airport runway extension and a second tunnel that should come before the giant pandas, he says.

“Spending taxpayer dollars to bring two pandas to Wellington Zoo is a waste of money, especially at a time when we are facing serious economic headwinds, cutting scientists from AgResearch and our state houses are in serious disrepair”.

“I think Wellingtonians would love to have pandas at the zoo”.

Panda Diplomacy is said to have begun during the Tang dynasty when Empress Wu Zetian gifted a panda-couple to the Japanese emperor.

“Having spent a bit of time on this process I know what’s involved, and it’s everything from not just the panda enclosure, you actually have to have somebody who comes from China to look after them and feed them a certain sort of bamboo”.

Key said they’d need to negotiate how much the Government contribution would be, but he’s not surprised by the steep price tag.

With some cost estimates reaching $100 million, Labour leader Andrew Little doesn’t buy the argument that it would boost the local economy.

“When you’re in the state the Government is in, there is always merit in having cuddly animals at the forefront of your political agenda”, he said.