Mark Dreyfus (Isaacs, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Attorney General) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Japan's announcement over the weekend that it will this summer resume the slaughter of whales in the Antarctic is an outrage that must be condemned.

Less than two years ago, Australia won a resounding victory against Japan in the International Court of Justice. The court agreed with Australia that Japan's so-called scientific whaling program in the Southern Ocean was nothing more than commercial whaling dressed in the lab coat of science, and was in breach of Japan's obligations under international law. The Japanese government said during the litigation that it would abide by the ruling of the highest court in the world.

Japan's announcement is an affront to Australia, which for 20 years sought to bring Japanese whaling to end through diplomacy and, when that failed, took the matter to be decided by the International Court of Justice. Japan's announcement is an affront to the international rule of law and undermines over half a century of exemplary international citizenship by Japan since it joined the United Nations in 1956. Japan's announcement is also an affront to the environment, which we now know beyond any shadow of doubt requires international co-operation to protect.

Labor calls on the Turnbull government to bring all pressure to bear on Japan to renounce this irresponsible and illegal course of action and to honour the moratorium on commercial whaling in the Southern Ocean.

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It being almost 2 pm, in accordance with standing order 43, the time for members' statements has concluded.