Anne Ruston (SA, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for International Development and the Pacific) Share this | Hansard source

Contrary to Senator Whish-Wilson's simple view of the issue before us, the government does believe that this is a complex foreign policy matter. Australia strongly opposes all forms of commercial and so-called scientific whaling. We have expressed our concern at the return of the Japanese fleet to the Southern Ocean. We will continue our efforts at the International Whaling Commission to promote whale conservation and our non-lethal whale research to prove that such scientific whaling is untenable. Our bilateral relations with Japan are extremely important to us and we continue to raise this at the highest levels with Japan.