Bob Brown (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

and I note that Senator Macdonald is effectively giving support to that government point of view. That being said, this is an important issue. The bill, you will note, Mr President, is hosted into this place by Senator Siewert and Senator Abetz. One would expect, therefore, that the motion to give precedence to debating, passing and bringing this bill into law would have the support of the opposition, but I am told that that is not to be the case.

The reality is that whaling is occurring south of this nation today. The disgusting process of a slow death after grenade-tipped harpoons are put into these great cetaceans—these great, warm-blooded fellow mammals of ours—is occurring while the current government, like the previous government, does nothing about it, although we know from the most recent opinion polls that 94 per cent of Australians want action by the government.

What this bill seeks to do is complement Australia’s own decision under the Fraser government in 1978 to end whaling, which led to the consequent ban on whaling fleets entering Australian ports, by making sure that Australians and Australian companies and entities do not give support to this bloody destruction of whales by Japanese whaling ships. This was brought into focus by the news earlier this year that the Japanese whaling fleet had employed, through a New Zealand agency, flights out of Albany or Perth, Hobart and/or Melbourne to track down the gallant Sea Shepherd defenders of the whales so that a ship that was part of the Japanese fleet could peel off and obstruct Sea Shepherd and prevent them from going to the defence of the whales and getting in the way of the whaling fleet—in other words, very clearly aiding and abetting the killing of whales. Now, that is an extraordinary abuse of the sentiment of Australia about this practice and the enactment by Australia of the defence of whales and the end of whaling. This is pure common sense. The bill needs to be enacted now so that we do not get a repeat of that behaviour by the Japanese authorities and whaling fleet, where they are using Australia to effectively help kill whales instead of defend them.

I might add here that one member of the Sea Shepherd group is currently locked up on a Japanese ship, having gallantly tried to get aboard that ship to give the captain a bill for the sinking of the Ady Gil, the fleet boat that was financed by Mr Ady Gil, who is currently in Canberra and should be applauded for the support he has given to Sea Shepherd.