BLUBBERING HYPOCRITES

I want to talk about blubber today. Whale blubber. Or more specifically the Federal Government’s anti-whaling policy which has turned out to be just a pile of political blubber. And stinking at that. It’s far cry from when the then shadow Environment Minister Peter Garrett and his leader Kevin Rudd were wooing the electorate and especially the Greenies in the 2007 election campaign.

The Japanese slaughter of whales in the Southern Ocean was ‘barbaric, cruel and unnecessary’, Garrett said. And he was right.

And the Japanese claim that the whale killing was for scientific reasons was a sham.

Garrett said: ‘This isn't about science. It isn't about research ... they're calling it science but really it's killing whales. You don't have to harpoon them to find out important scientific information about them. Fifteen minutes of agonising death at the hands of a harpooner is no way to treat these beautiful and regal creatures.’  That’s what he said and Australians applauded.

After all, Malcolm Fraser closed Australia’s last whaling station at Cheynes Beach in Western Australia in 1987.

Within weeks of taking office Rudd and Garrett were talking tough.

They would send the Oceanic Viking, fitted with powerful telephoto lenses and video recorders, to shadow the Japanese whaling fleet. The RAAF would fly surveillance missions. They would appoint a Special Envoy on Whaling. They would lead a coalition of anti-whaling nations to protest in Tokyo. They would take the Japanese to the International Court of Justice.

As Garrett put it: ‘The full repertory that a government can bring to this issue, the Rudd government is bringing to it.’

The Sydney Daily Telegraph delivered a petition with 130,000 signatures to the Japanese Government. The Australian Government did appoint a Special Envoy and spent nearly $14 million on an anti-whaling ‘information campaign’.

So why am I calling this a heap of rotting political blubber?  Because the Government wimped it at the International Whaling Commission meeting last year. The much trumpeted air and sea operation in the Southern Ocean didn’t really happen. It took them eight months to appoint the Special Envoy.

And the recent Federal Budget produced the final harpoon. They’ve abolished the whaling Envoy’s position after less than six months in the job. It was all election rhetoric. They’ve wiped their promises and hoped you wouldn’t notice. If you did, just please don’t blubber.

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

© Copyright Derryn Hinch 2009