Peter Garrett (Kingsford Smith, Australian Labor Party, Minister for the Environment, Heritage and the Arts) Share this | Hansard source

The government is not pretending that the International Whaling Commission engagement is going to be easier, but the government actually do have a policy for reform. We have a constructive approach we are bringing to the table. But all the opposition ever seems to do is to talk down Australia’s prospects of success. All we have had from the opposition is negative or confused in approach and, when it comes to confusion, the member for Flinders could not wait for the Oceanic Viking to arrive in the Southern Ocean last January. In fact, he was pleading with the government on 16 January when he said the Oceanic Viking ‘must now arrive to not only help monitor and protect the great whales of the south but also to help act as a balance and to keep the peace on the high seas’. Of course, the Oceanic Viking did undertake monitoring and surveillance in the Southern Ocean, something that was never achieved in the 12 previous years of the Liberal government. Then we had the member for Goldstein making his contribution on 15 June about the Australian government’s action. He said:

It has reduced our credibility, reduced our leverage, our negotiating position in trying to reach a diplomatic solution.

I cannot think of a weaker message to be sending on Australia’s commitment to whale conservation than what the opposition have been saying, with their confused actions, their negativism and their record of seeing the whale quotas increase by a considerable number on their watch.

There is a lot of noise from members opposite because they recognise that their policy on this issue delivered absolutely nothing over 12 years. It is time for them to get serious and to resolve what they actually think about this issue and to look at the substantial engagement that the Rudd government has to get behind the strong proposals to refocus the International Whaling Commission on the conservation of whales—to come in with all of Australia as we chart a new course in the protection of these magnificent sea creatures.

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