Ian Campbell (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for the Environment and Heritage) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you to Senator Payne for a question which I know is of great interest to most Australians. The Australian delegation and, in fact, the coalition that we have helped to form with a number of other pro conservation nations, achieved some important outcomes at a conference that could well have gone the wrong way. The Japanese—and their pro-whaling friends in Norway, Iceland and some other places: 27 other countries including Nauru—have been, it is obvious, aggressively recruiting, really since the moratorium came into force 20 years ago, with a view to returning the world to the disastrous days prior to the moratorium, when commercial whaling saw the destruction of nearly the entire humpback whale population on the earth, the entire fin whale population on the earth, and the entire blue whale population on the earth, not to mention some other lesser known species. Blue whales have not recovered as a result of the moratorium. They are still at perilously low levels. Fin whales have only just started recovering, and are still listed as an endangered and vulnerable species. Humpbacks, even with 20 years of no hunting, are still listed as a species that is at risk.

The achievements were in fact to defeat the whalers on four crucial and substantial votes. Japan moved to ensure that all votes at the commission would be held in private, which would of course reduce accountability back to their nations of those who choose to vote in favour of whaling. They tried to get rid of the Southern Ocean sanctuary, a sanctuary that was put in place just at the end of the last century. They tried to introduce commercial whaling off the coast of Japan and failed to do that. They also tried to remove any items to do with small whales and small dolphins from the agenda of the commission.

All of those votes were won for a couple of reasons—firstly, because we have been able to create this global coalition of countries for conservation. That has taken a lot of very hard work by not only the Australian government and the Foreign Affairs officials from Australia but also core like-minded friends: the United States; Great Britain, headed up by their minister Ben Bradshaw; New Zealand and their minister Chris Carter; the Brazilians; and the South Africans—a group of countries working together. That group stayed stronger than ever before. We also got some key abstentions on some key motions from countries like Kiribati and the Solomons. We saw one country, Belize, switching sides. And of course we saw, for example, Israel, a new conservation nation, joining the commission. All of those factors brought it together. We did see Japan, in an act of desperation, move a pious motion, as we would call it here in the Senate—basically a motion that is nonbinding—on the last day, criticising the moratorium. That highlights the risks that are ahead of us.

The only disappointing note for the delegation over there, which included NGOs like Project Jonah and the Humane Society, was the incessant carping and whining from the Labor Party opposition spokesman and Senator Brown back here. It is sad when you have a bunch of Aussies on the other side of the world working hard with other countries to try to maintain the moratorium on whaling that you get this constant carping. I notice that Senator Brown in this place actually suggested that we use Japan’s tactics in relation to Nauru and other Pacific nations to win their vote. Australia will never link its aid to votes in these sorts of bodies, and Senator Brown and the Labor Party should be entirely ashamed of themselves.