Bob Brown (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I seek leave to make a short statement.

Leave granted.

I thank the Senate, particularly Senator Abetz. The motion before us seeks to vary the sitting hours on the first Tuesday when we come back in September, to facilitate the visit of the Rt Hon. Stephen Harper, the Prime Minister of Canada, to address the House of Representatives. Senators have been asked to join that address. The matter I want to raise is the formal notice given to Australians that we would also be seeing a visit by Prime Minister Abe of Japan, to address the House of Representatives. That visit has fallen through. I want to find out from the government why that has happened. On the face of it, it appears that, in the run-up to the election, the Prime Minister of this country did not want the embarrassment of finding thousands of protesters outside this parliament protesting against the slaughter of Australian whales—including, this year, some 20 humpback whales—by the Japanese whaling fleet, which is currently preparing to set forth on its bloody mission from Tokyo into Australian waters off Antarctica in the coming summer.