With news overnight that Japan’s new plan for killing 4000 whales in the Southern Ocean has been rejected by an Expert Panel of the International Whaling Commission (IWC), the Greens spokesperson for Whaling, Senator Peter Whish-Wilson, is calling on the Australian Government to publicly rebuke Japan for rejecting the IWC advice and pushing ahead with its whaling plans.
Senator Whish-Wilson said, “Japan first thumbed their nose at the International Court of Justice verdict and now they are thumbing their nose at the IWC Expert Panel.
“It’s time for Australia to elevate its protest at Japan’s belligerence from the bureaucratic to the political.
“This Liberal government has rolled over and let our junior bureaucrats be the only official source of resistance against Japan’s plan to slaughter thousands of whales in our waters.
“Greg Hunt, in opposition, talked the talk about taking it up the Japanese over whaling.* In Government, even the talk has stopped and there is no sign of walking the walk.
“I am calling on Greg Hunt to publically rebuke the Japanese Government over their plans to begin the carnage again.
“What’s left of Greg Hunt’s credibility depends on his ability to get this issue raised at the highest possible level. Anything else is failure,” he concluded.
*NB: 13 statements from Greg Hunt, while in Opposition, about stopping Japanese Whaling
1. ‘The slaughter of the great whales of the Southern Ocean is set to continue. Mr Garrett failed to deliver on any of the promises he made about Japan’s sham whale research program. He led Australians to believe that he could bring about an end to whaling. But instead he rolled over and allowed Japan to press ahead with yet another season of whaling.’ (28 June 2008)
2. ‘After the failure of the International Whaling Commission to reach an agreement in Portugal, Japan is set to recommence the slaughter in the Southern Ocean. This summer, Japanese whalers will be back in Australian waters reaping their grim harvest. They have a green light to continue whaling.’ (29 June 2009)
3. ‘Australians won’t put up with the ALP trying to dodge the promises about the slaughter of these majestic creatures.’ (4 January 2010)
4. ‘With Mr Rudd finally in Japan, he’s continuing his deathly silence on his promise to go to the international court. That signals that the whaling case has been dropped. Instead he’s now talking up a diplomatic response through the International Whaling Commission.’ (11 June 2008)
5. ‘Given his promises, Mr Rudd must lay down a deadline for Japan to halt its sham whaling program. If Japan won’t agree to stop killing the whales, the Prime Minister must follow through with his oft-repeated promise to launch legal action against the barbaric practice.’ (14 December 2009)
6. Greg Hunt: ‘Look I might say something very briefly. Firstly, Mr Rudd is meeting with the Japanese Prime Minister today and he must raise whaling. It is extraordinary that he has cried wolf about whaling but he is not willing to put whaling on his agenda with the Japanese Prime Minister. So he must raise whaling and seek a deadline.’
Tony Abbott: ‘Well Mr Rudd has been making a whole lot of empty threats and you shouldn’t make threats that you aren’t prepared to carry out. Now, Mr Rudd made the threat. He needs either to do it or to withdraw it, one way or the other.’ (15 December 2009)
7. ‘Reports of the slaughter of whales in Australian waters are deeply disturbing. The Government must make a statement immediately, have whales been slaughtered in Australian waters, if so what are they going to do about it. We’ve got blood in the water and a blind eye in Canberra, it’s completely unacceptable. These are Australian waters that should be protected. Whaling should never be occurring but for it to occur in Australian waters is an utter failure in Canberra… The notion of scientific research as a basis for slaughtering whales has always been a myth, we know that, the Australian Government knows that, it’s time that they stood up for Australia and Australian waters.’ (16 February 2013)
8. ‘We were fortunate to protect these absolutely majestic creatures… And so it’s been a real tragedy that instead of making progress and building on the humpback success we had in the last year, we’ve now given the green light to Japan to continue this slaughter. Look I take a pretty uncompromising view. It’s our time and it’s our watch and these are majestic creatures and we have to fight for them and if we have to have a vote and we have to take Japan on then so be it.’ (26 June 2008)
9. ‘Well what we have is a weak minister who’s weak on whaling with weak excuses. This is a weak excuse. What Mr Garrett has done is say to Japan: you continue the slaughter, just stay out of Australian waters. In reality, Japan is likely to enter Australian waters. In reality they will be increasing the number of whales taken this year over last year. Last year there were 550 whales taken. This year they’ve said they are aiming for 900 whales all up. That is an increase in whaling under the Rudd Government’s watch.’ (21 November 2008)
10. ‘We went through a summer of whaling, we went through an international whaling commission where they gave the green light to Japan, they waved the white flag to Japan.’ (20 October 2008)
11. ‘I think the fig leaf of scientific research has fallen away from Japan’s defence for whaling. They are about to head to the Southern Ocean, Japanese whalers are heading to the Southern Ocean to slaughter Australian whales this summer, Mr Rudd is going to Japan, whaling is not on his agenda, he must add whaling and a complete ultimatum to the Japanese to finish whaling and to set a deadline and he must raise the issue of whaling with the Japanese Prime Minister. There can be no excuse for standing up for Australia’s environment, no excuse for standing up for Australian values and no excuse for failing to protect the majestic creatures of the Great Southern Ocean.’ (13 December 2009)
12. ‘The message is very clear, this is the moment, this is the time, this the day to raise whaling with the Japanese Prime Minister, to seek an ultimatum, to set a deadline, and if the Japanese Prime Minister will not agree to a timeframe of process, an agreed approach to ending whaling, then Mr Rudd must make it absolutely clear that he will follow his oft-repeated election promise to take Japan to the International Court.’ (15 December 2009)
13. ‘Well, we are dead opposed to whaling. The Coalition is opposed to it. Australians are overwhelmingly opposed to it. The Government pretends to be opposed to it. And then they started the slowest court process imaginable, and in the meantime they’re doing nothing.’ (12 December 2011)
(Sources available on request).
• John Biggs, in Comments: Thank you Peter for unearthing these statements by Hunt. If he takes no action after saying that from the safety of the Opposition benches, he should be forced to resign.
• Tony Press, Adjunct Professor, Antarctic Climate & Ecosystems CRC at University of Tasmania, The Conversation: Killing whales for science: Japan is sent back to the drawing board Japan’s latest proposal to resume whaling in the Antarctic has been rejected by an expert panel set up by the International Whaling Commission, which regulates whaling and whale conservation. The panel found that “the present proposal contains insufficient information for the Panel to complete a full review”. Japan’s new program, NEWREP-A (New Scientific Whale Research Program in the Antarctic Ocean), proposed killing up to 333 minke whales each year until 2027. Unlike Japan’s previous whaling program, JARPA II, only Antarctic minke whales are targeted, and there is some increased effort in “non-lethal” research methods. But the core of the proposed program centres on the lethal sampling of minke whales. Among Japan’s justifications for the level of lethal sampling in its proposed program is the statement that:
