Peter Whish-Wilson (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

In the IWC vote on Tuesday this week for the establishment of a whale sanctuary in the Atlantic Ocean, four of the Pacific Island neighbours—Nauru, Kiribati, Tuvalu and Solomon Islands—voted with Japan, and against Australia, in opposing the creation of the sanctuary. Why was the Assistant Minister for International Development and the Pacific unable to persuade these nations to vote with us, and will they vote to overturn a ban on commercial whaling?