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

My question is to the Minister representing the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and the Arts. I refer to a request I made under freedom of information for documents relating to the Oceanic Viking’s trip to observe Japanese whaling during the summer before last and a request for the release of the tapes of the whaling. The government, in its refusal to release those tapes, said that the Japanese government had been upset by the release of a short amount of video and that the government did not want to upset the Japanese government by the release of a further video showing its harpooning, killing and flensing of whales in and outside Australian waters. How on earth could the government refrain from releasing video material of Japanese whaling because it might upset the whalers?