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

The opposition say ‘the pirates of the sea’. I think that is a fairly telling comment: it is Senator Abetz that is co-hosting this bill to defend the action of Sea Shepherd, but his colleague just one row back is putting forward this calumny—which the Japanese government will like but the Australian people will not—that Sea Shepherd are in some way pirates. Of course, the pirates are the Japanese whalers who are killing these great whales. And now we have the news that the Australian government might be working out a fix in the International Whaling Commission to legalise the commercial taking of whales, including humpback, in the Southern Ocean. What an extraordinary turnaround on their election commitment on whaling.

This bill is urgent. It is clearly a private senator’s bill that needs to be debated in time for it to have effect. It should be supported by the government and it should be supported by the opposition. It is logical and warranted that this legislation be dealt with now and put into law so that it has the effect that Australians want to see it having.