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

Millions of people around the world are frustrated that again the Danish authorities have decided to keep Captain Paul Watson in jail in Greenland pending potential extradition to Japan—the next court hearing being on 2 October. Every Greens MP has written to the Albanese government asking them to make a public statement in support of Captain Paul Watson. This is what President Macron of France has done. He has shown some leadership and asked the Danish government to free Paul Watson.

Every member of parliament—Senator and lower house representative—in this place will have received a letter from the Captain Paul Watson Foundation asking them to sign on and send this letter to the Danish Prime Minister. In the European Union parliament, over 60 parliamentarians have signed such a letter, once again calling on the Danish government to release Paul Watson.

Paul Watson is being held in jail because of his activism to protect whales in the Southern Ocean whale sanctuary at a time when the Australian government has also been fighting to save these whales through a number of international forums and has successfully prosecuted a case against the Japanese government through the International Court of Justice which found that the Japanese whaling that Paul Watson and his followers were trying to stop was illegal. That is why the Japanese government are going after Captain Paul Watson.

It also hasn't escaped my attention that right now in the Faroe Islands, which are essentially sanctioned by Norway, over 150 Atlantic white-sided dolphins have been slaughtered in the last couple of days. It's no coincidence also that he has been detained in a jail while this kind of barbarity is occurring, essentially under the watch of the Danish government. I call on the Danish government to release Captain Paul Watson and stand up for our oceans.