Mission & Justice

22/7/08

Next time you are about to swallow a mouthful of delicious tuna, spare a thought for the work that goes on behind the scenes to make sure that there really are plenty more fish in the sea. The Pacific Ocean covers more of Earth than all the land masses put together. It also supports the world’s most productive tuna fisheries, as well as high biodiversity of other oceanic fish that often end up caught in the same nets or on the same hooks that are fishing for tuna. In early July, 20 members of Pacific Islands fisheries administrations took part in a week-long training course in ‘Fish Stock Assessment’ and ‘Ecological Risk Assessment’ conducted by scientists from the Secretariat of the Pacific Community’s Oceanic Fisheries Programme (SPC-OFP). The training was part of the ongoing work of SPC-OFP in building the capacity of Pacific Island countries and territories to conserve and manage stocks of tuna, billfish, sharks and other highly migratory fish species in their exclusive economic zones and in international waters.

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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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Sean Parnell; 27/6/08

Australia’s ambassador for HIV/AIDS has told a UN meeting that global intervention is needed to avert a health crisis in the Asia-Pacific region now that “the epidemic is outpacing the response”. Murray Proctor, who is also deputy director-general of the Asia division of AusAid, used his recent speech in New York to plead for urgent measures to halt the spread of HIV in countries neighbouring Australia. Helping to mark seven years since the Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS, Mr Proctor welcomed the increased access to anti-retroviral treatment around the world but suggested universal access to prevention become a priority.

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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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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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Victoria Adituraga; 17/6/08

Fiji’s Immigration Director speaks in an interview about the social problem that plagues not just Fiji, but the entire region. As reported by The Fiji Sun, its Chief of Staff, Cheerieann Wilson, had an interview with Mr. Viliame Naupoto, Fiji’s Director of Immigration, about the problem of prostitution in Fiji which has apparently become a ‘booming trade overnight’. According to the interview, the problem of prostitution is further enhanced by the fact that it is not just locals that are involved in the trade but also foreigners, especially foreign women, who come into Fiji under student visas but are involved in prostitution. In response to the question of how students are using the system to get into the country and engage in prostitution, Mr. Naupoto said that the abuse they are seeing is with the students coming in to study English.

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