Mission & Justice

Andrew Darby; 26/6/08

The Federal Government, under fire for weakening its opposition to Japanese whaling, has bought into a deal set to muzzle it, at least through the coming Antarctic season. Australia joined a truce at the International Whaling Commission, and will be one of a select group of countries working for agreement. IWC chairman Bill Hogarth cautioned all countries against damaging the peace by pushing their own agendas too hard outside the talks. Within hours of the agreement being reached, Environment Minister Peter Garrett moderated his criticism.

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25/6/08

Japan has gone on the attack at the opening of the International Whaling Commission annual meeting in Chile, accusing Australia of bringing nothing to the negotiating table. The Japanese Government, a financial backer of the nation’s whaling fleet, also complained of a lack of rational decision-making at the IWC and described it as “dysfunctional”. A possible resumption in commercial whaling is expected to split the meeting of the 80-member IWC in Santiago. Australia wants to reform the IWC into a conservation body. But Japan has threatened to resume commercial whaling after a suspension of more than 20 years, in a gesture of defiance towards conservationists and anti-whaling governments.

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Dennis Shanahan; 24/6/08

Australia is pressing ahead with radical reform of the International Whaling Commission, despite signs of compromise from Japan and anti-whaling organisations. As federal Environment Minister Peter Garrett arrived in Santiago, Chile, for the whaling commission’s annual meeting, Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said the IWC could no longer remain a forum at which the number of whales to be culled was determined. Mr Smith said in Canberra yesterday that while Australia would maintain bilateral pressure on Japan to secure whaling reforms, the issue would be pursued “in a multilateral forum like the International Whaling Commission”. “Australia wants to reform the International Whaling Commission,” Mr Smith said.

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Matthew Warren; 23/6/08

Political capital is like many natural resources: it’s a finite resource and needs to be managed carefully to maximise its value. Environment Minister Peter Garrett is in Chile this morning, leading Australia’s delegation to the International Whaling Commission. The Rudd Government has the wallet out in Santiago, splashing out big on the annual whaling pantomime with Japan. Its preoccupation with big symbolism is crowding out more urgent but less populist international fisheries management problems. Blanket opposition to any type of whaling is an old argument dating back to the early 1980s, when continued over-exploitation pushed a number of species close to extinction. As it is, continued Japanese whaling under the scientific exemption to the 1986 moratorium is tokenistic rather than market driven. Japan deliberately defies the moratorium to prevent the principles of customary law allowing other countries’ policy agenda to overtake its own.

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Michelle Grattan; 22/6/08

Just when Kevin Rudd has smoothed the waters with Japan, another stoush over whales looms. The International Whaling Commission meeting in Santiago, Chile this week will be a test of strength, highlighting the stark differences between the two countries. Australia will argue that the commission should become an organisation dedicated to conservation. Japan’s view is that whales are a resource, and whaling should be a legitimate commercial industry; it classes the current moratorium, imposed in the 1980s, as an interregnum. Japan wants the commission - to be a manager of a resource rather than of a ban.

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20/6/08

Antarctic whales are threatened by shrinking foraging zones and the need to swim hundreds of kilometres further to find food because of climate change, a WWF report says. Species such as the minke whale, favoured by Japanese hunters, face dramatic changes to their habitat in little over an individual whale’s lifespan, the report says. The report, Ice breaker: Pushing the Boundaries for Whales, has been released just ahead of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) meeting in Chile next week. It summarises WWF research showing levels of global warming predicted over the next 40 years will lead to winter sea-ice coverage of the Southern Ocean declining by up to 30 per cent in some key areas.

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18/6/08

Japan executed three people yesterday, including serial killer Tsutomu Miyazaki, who murdered four little girls and ate some of their bodies. Miyazaki, 45, was hanged at a detention centre in Tokyo, Justice Minister Kunio Hatoyama said. The fetishist burned the body of one four-year-old and left her bones on her parents’ doorstep. He wrote letters to the media and victims’ families, taunting police. Japanese newspapers said he ate part of the hand of one of his victims and drank her blood. Mr Hatoyama confirmed that two other people were executed, but did not give their names. “I ordered their executions because the cases were of indescribable cruelty,” he said.

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Josh Gordon; 15/6/08

Environment Minister Peter Garrett has denied Australia has backed away from a threat to take Japan to the International Court over whaling, declaring, “The legal option remains on the table”. He said Australia would first pursue its efforts through a campaign to reform the International Whaling Commission. If that failed, court action would be considered. “We’ve been really clear with the Japanese Government as we have with all nations on our opposition to commercial whaling,” Mr Garrett said. “We will consider legal options in due course.”

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Matthew Franklin; 13/6/08

Kevin Rudd has won Japanese support for his plan to kick-start nuclear disarmament through reform of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. But Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda has flatly rejected his demand that Japanese whalers cease their annual hunt in the Southern Ocean, expressing hope the dispute would not undermine relations between the countries. Mr Rudd’s meeting and lunch with Mr Fukuda in Tokyo yesterday wound up his four-day visit to Japan before he left for Indonesia.

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Maria Hawthorne; 11/6/08

Australia is still considering taking Japan to court over its whaling in the Southern Ocean, with Prime Minister Kevin Rudd denying he has abandoned the plan. On the eve of his first meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda in Tokyo, Mr Rudd told the Japan National Press Club that legal action was still an option if diplomacy failed to resolve the issue. New Zealand has dumped plans to take Japan to court after receiving legal advice that such a challenge was doomed. Last weekend, Mr Rudd also appeared to be signalling a softening on legal action, focusing on diplomatic efforts in the lead-up to this month’s International Whaling Commission (IWC) meeting in Chile. But today he said there was no change in the Australian Government’s position.

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