Christine Milne (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

Senators Macdonald, Bernardi and Williams have made some basic factual errors that a simple Internet search would have identified. Dr Bob Brown is no longer Chair of Sea Shepherd and was not chair when the incident occurred. The Cairns court magistrate said that the 100-litre spill was minor and no environmental damage occurred because an absorbent boom was deployed immediately. Sea Shepherd issued a statement indicating that it was neither wilful nor reckless and that Sea Shepherd itself responded by notifying authorities of the spill. This is a poor attempt by the senators to attack the outstanding work of Sea Shepherd, which has tackled illegal whaling in our waters and this year will focus on illegal tooth fish hauls and continue its campaign against Western Australia's indiscriminate killing of sharks.