New Zealand has gained an elephant and Prime Minister John Key has defended his refusal to back calls for an independent inquiry on Sri Lanka, while attending the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting.

Mr Key attended CHOGM despite calls at home for him emulate the leaders of Canada, India and Mauritius and boycott it over concerns about Sri Lanka’s human rights record.

Mr Key says it is better to be talking to Sri Lanka than not, and he also defended his refusal to back calls for an independent inquiry into the reports of 40,000 civilian deaths.

British Prime Minister David Cameron has visited Sri Lanka’s northern province and backed the United Nations’ call for an independent investigation.

However, Mr Key fudged his response to why New Zealand wasn’t doing the same in an interview with TVNZ’s Q&A on Sunday.

“The question is whether that would actually achieve a lot or whether the focus would be better saying `we have had this national inquiry’ ... so the real question for Sri Lanka, as the military tend to withdraw from the north, can you end up with a ... peaceful long term position?”

The item sparked Labour’s foreign affairs spokesman David Shearer to say New Zealand’s foreign affairs focus had now shrunk to little more than a discussion on trade, or “agricultural diplomacy”.

“As Kiwis we once proudly stood as an independent and honest broker, strongly supporting democracy, human rights and the rule of law. Regrettably, that reputation can no longer be defended.”

Mr Key was also denying the deaths of 45,000 civilians in 2009, Mr Shearer said.

“The war was a vicious one, with atrocities committed on both Tamil and government sides. I worked there for two years in the 1990s; I witnessed its brutality.”

Mr Shearer said the contrast between Mr Key and Mr Cameron, with his strong call for an inquiry, could not be more stark.

“John Key appears to have stayed within his hotel confines and taken most of his information from a government-supplied bodyguard.”

While Mr Key defended his dovish stance on Sri Lanka, New Zealand has gained an elephant.

Sri Lankan Economic Development Minister Basil Rajapaksa told Q&A his country wanted to send New Zealand an elephant as a symbol of the two countries’ friendship.