Aussie Green Leader Calls for Tougher Stance on Whaling

Green Leader Bob Brown is asking that Kevin Rudd follow up on Labor's promise to take measures against Japanese Whaling. I hope they do. It will be interesting to see what effect this will have on Australia-Japan relations if they start buzzing the whalers with military aircraft.

The six-ship fleet is a week out of Japan after foiling Greenpeace plans to tail it, and is likely to reach Antarctica to begin whaling by mid-December.

Labor went to the election pledging to take a much stronger stand against whaling than the Howard government. Mr Rudd said it was time to take a new course of action, and "step it up a bit".

Foreign Affairs spokesman Robert McClelland said Labor would use the Australian Defence Force to gather evidence on Japanese activity to present to international tribunals.

With the whalers planning to add 50 humpbacks from Australian stocks to the kill, international law specialists including Australian National University's Professor Don Rothwell say legal action could be taken urgently.

Photo by SqueakyMarmot