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

It seems that the Labor Party cannot even understand what occured. It has been well covered in the newspapers. The reality is that Kiribati and the Solomons both abstained on the key votes. That is a great achievement from countries that have very close relationships with Japan and have traditionally always supported Japan. Abstentions, even if Senator O’Brien cannot understand it, are incredibly important when you are down to those sorts of votes.

The reality is that the only country that did not help in some way in relation to our efforts at the IWC this week was in fact the Marshall Islands. They did say that they would keep an open mind about it. I have said that it did not seem to me, from the way they voted, that they did have an open mind. But I do not browbeat these countries. I will keep working with Nauru, for example. We had a very good meeting with Pacific island countries, hosted by Australia and New Zealand. We will keep working with them. That is what you have to do if you want to win this fight. (Time expired)