John Faulkner (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Cabinet Secretary) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On Thursday, 13 November I took a number of questions on notice from Senator Siewert in relation to Japan’s whaling program and undertook to seek additional information from the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and the Arts and the Minister for Foreign Affairs. I seek leave to incorporate the answer in Hansard.

Leave granted.

The response read as follows—

I was asked whether the Prime Minister had raised the issue of the arrest of two Japanese Greenpeace activists with his counterpart. I am advised by the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet that, to the best of its knowledge, the issue has not been discussed by the Prime Minister with his counterpart. As I previously indicated to the Senate, this is a domestic law enforcement matter for the Japanese Government and as such, it is not appropriate for the Australian Government to comment.

I was asked whether the Australian Government investigated whether the actions of the Japanese authorities are a breach of international law under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. It is the Australian Government’s view that the matter, which involves the alleged breach of Japanese laws by Japanese nationals in Japan, is one for the Japanese authorities. It would be inappropriate to conduct an ‘investigation’ into a matter which is a domestic law enforcement issue for Japan.

I was asked whether the Australian Government has obtained advice on whether the matters referred to by Senator Siewert are a breach of Japan’s so-called research whaling program, and whether the Government had pursued this matter with the International Whaling Commission (IWC). The Government has examined whether the allegations, if substantiated, would constitute a breach of relevant IWC provisions, however it is not the practice of the Government to disclose the contents of legal advice that it has received. While the Government has not communicated with the IWC in relation to this matter, earlier this year the Government presented proposals for reform of the IWC which, among other things, called for reforming the management of science in the IWC through collaborative non-lethal research and an end to unilateral ‘scientific ‘whaling.