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

I thank the member for Throsby for her question and her interest in this issue. The Rudd government remain resolutely opposed to commercial whaling in any form, including so-called scientific whaling, and our commitment to whale conservation remains clear in the number of unprecedented actions the government has taken since coming to office. We have advanced a significant reform agenda through the International Whaling Commission, with initiatives for international non-lethal whale research partnerships, starting in the Southern Ocean, and conservation management plans to support the recovery of vulnerable whale species and populations. Many countries, including New Zealand, Chile, the United Kingdom and the United States, strongly supported Australia’s proposals and we are now working towards putting these plans into action.

I am pleased to inform the House that Australia will host an international workshop in March 2009 to plan the non-lethal whale research partnerships for the Southern Ocean. The partnerships will also be open to all countries and will demonstrate once again that all essential whale research can be performed without killing a single whale. We remain optimistic that through this reform agenda we can help shape the International Whaling Commission into a 21st century, conservation orientated organisation, a body focused on studying living whales, not counting dead ones.

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