Mission & Justice

Amanda O’Brien & Elizabeth Gosch; 11/7/08

Japanese and Canadian mining giants have made a $500 million bet on a change of government in Western Australia after agreeing to buy Rio Tinto’s vast uranium deposit in the Pilbara region of the state. The state Labor Government remains vehemently opposed to uranium mining, but with an election expected in October, the sale of Rio Tinto’s Kintyre uranium deposit sets up a major political brawl. Under the deal unveiled yesterday, and which is expected to be completed next month, Canada’s Cameco and Japan’s Mitsubishi Development will pay $US496million ($519million) to buy the deposit, which could be worth up to $5 billion at current uranium oxide prices. Cameco noted yesterday: “Australian governments and political parties generally are becoming more supportive of uranium development.”

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Zara Kanu, 9/7/08

East New Britain-based Open Bay Timber Ltd recently signed a new 40-year restoration project agreement with the PNG Forest Authority. The company has committed to increase the area from 12,000 hectares to a reforested 20,000 hectares with planting scheduled to be completed by the end of 2020 at a cost of K32 million. Established in 1971, Open Bay Timber is presently the only Japanese timber company operating in PNG. Company chairman Hiroshi Nakamura said the company started a large scale reforestation project in 1985 and would be one of the largest reforestation companies planting non-conifer trees in the South Pacific region when the new targets were reached. Mr Nakamura emphasised the importance of reforestation worldwide considering the rapid decrease in natural forest resources and the problem of world climate change.

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28/6/08

Environment Minister Peter Garrett has come under fire from the opposition and Greenpeace for failing to make a dent in Japan’s scientific whaling program at the International Whaling Commission (IWC) annual conference. He was “a whale of a flop” at the meeting, in Santiago, Chile, which ended on Friday, says Opposition Environment spokesman Greg Hunt. Anti-whale hunting nations spearheaded by Australia expressed deep concern at Japan’s skirting of a 1986 moratorium on commercial whaling by hunting hundreds of whales each year in the name of scientific research.

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Andrew Darby; 28/6/08

A new whaling dispute has sapped confidence that United States-led attempts at reconciliation between nations on the issue will gain ground. Whalers supported a humpback quota in the International Whaling Commission yesterday, even though they had no chance of success. They used the opportunity to attack conservation nations’ arguments and predicted that the US reconciliation efforts would fail. The outburst of acrimony dampened Federal Government hopes that the IWC peace process could end Southern Ocean whaling by Japan. The dispute also overshadowed a conservation reform plan put to the meeting by Australia.

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Andrew Darby; 27/6/08

Federal Environment Minister Peter Garrett has urged Japan to take part in a multinational collaboration in non-lethal Southern Ocean scientific research and to call off whaling. “In support of this new partnership approach … I would specifically ask that Japan suspend its lethal scientific research in the Southern Ocean,” Mr Garrett said in his most direct call yet at this week’s International Whaling Commission talks in Santiago. Earlier in the week he had moderated his criticism of Japan. Tokyo made no response to the partnership call. Glenn Inwood, a spokesman for Japan, said: “Japan feels it does not need to respond to this.” Australia’s non-lethal research partnership proposal, announced by Mr Garrett yesterday, drew wide support from anti-whaling nations at the IWC.

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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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