Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for the Murray Darling Basin) Share this | Hansard source

by leave—The coalition understand the sentiments of the Greens in moving this motion. However, we have concerns in relation to whether this motion reflects appropriately the jurisdiction of the Federal Court ruling and also we have concerns that the motion could in fact have presented some jeopardising of the legal case that is under way by the government at present. We share the frustrations of the Greens in relation to the slow pace that this government is taking in addressing whaling—the fact that it took fully 2½ years since the 2007 election to progress the case to the International Court of Justice. We would rather have seen faster action there. We would prefer to see monitoring occurring in terms of what is happening in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary at present but unfortunately are not able, due to those concerns, to support this motion today.