Santiago talk-fest should focus on the right whale
Monday, June 23rd, 2008Matthew 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.
