Peter Whish-Wilson (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answer given by the Minister for Emergency Management (Senator McAllister) to a question without notice I asked today relating to whaling.

Australians love whales. As we speak in the Australian Senate right now, on both the east and west coastlines of this beautiful big country thousands of whales are breaching and frolicking off our beaches. Australians come out in numbers and receive so much joy from seeing these whales. We are so proud that we as a nation have protected all cetaceans in our territorial waters. We are also fighters for the conservation of whales. Australians and their governments have shown leadership on the international stage now for decades to protect whales and to end cruel and barbaric commercial whaling.

Senators, that's why we owe a debt of attitude to Captain Paul Watson and his supporters. Paul is languishing in jail in Greenland, being detained by the Danish authorities on behalf of the Japanese, apparently relating to incidents in 2010, when he was down in the Southern Ocean protecting the exact same whales that we now see off our coastlines. Because we've fought so hard as a nation to protect whales, we owe him a debt of gratitude, and we need to repay that debt now by standing up for Paul. He was on his way to protect endangered finwhales in the North Pacific, which are again being hunted by Japanese harpoon boats with grenade-tipped harpoons.

Let me tell you: it is a simple fact that the Danish government is detaining Paul Watson for the Japanese government. We will get a decision on 5 September as to whether or not he will be extradited to Japan, facing potentially 14 years in a Japanese prison. I mentioned earlier this week in the Senate the irregularities around the legal processes so far in relation to this extradition. We are very concerned he hasn't received fair and just treatment. On behalf of many Australians I call on our Australian government to do everything it can either behind the scenes, through quiet diplomacy, through the International Whaling Commission—who have been leaders in that forum for many years—through the International Court of Justice or through direct diplomatic means with both the Japanese and Danish governments to end this potential extradition and free Paul Watson, and send a really important message that we support the conservation of whales because it was very clear in Senate question time today that we do. Minister McAllister spoke very strongly and very clearly about the work the current government and previous governments in this country have done to protect whales.

It would mean a lot if our government was to make direct representations on behalf of the Australian people to the Danish government to free Paul Watson. It's not that difficult to do. President Macron, of France, has openly and publicly called on the Danish government to free Paul and has said the French are trying to actively intervene in this case to make sure he doesn't get extradited to Japan. The European Parliament, parliamentarians from nations in the EU, have come together to write to the Danish Prime Minister, saying, 'Do not extradite Paul Watson to Japan.' I'm optimistic that parliamentarians in this parliament will also sign a joint letter that they will receive soon from the Paul Watson Foundation to also show solidarity and support for Paul and see that he is freed. I've written to the Danish ambassador myself, asking for him to be freed. Disappointingly, I haven't had a response.

It's good to hear our government is doing active, constructive, strong things to protect whales, and all I ask of it today—and I know so many people around this country would support myself and other senators in this chamber who feel the same way—is to show solidarity for Paul, to stand up for him, to make representations to the Danish government and to let him get on with the job of protecting endangered fin whales in the North Pacific.

Question agreed to.