New Zealand Should Back Australian Attempts To End Whaling

New Zealand should join Australia’s legal attempts to stop whaling in the Southern Ocean, Labour’s Foreign Affairs Spokesperson Chris Carter said.

“Australia has announced it will lodge an application in the International Court of Justice in The Hague next week. The New Zealand Government should be supporting this move,” Chris Carter said.

“John Key boasted earlier this year that he had a diplomatic solution to ending whaling, but that ‘solution’ stalled after it was revealed that New Zealand negotiators were actually working on a plan to allow some commercial whaling on the Southern Ocean.

“The legal case being taken by the Australian Government represents a real opportunity for whaling in the Southern Ocean to be ended once and for all.

“If New Zealand is serious about being a world leader in conservation issues supporting a bid by the Australian Government to end whaling should be a no brainer.

“Without action to stop whaling in the Southern Ocean it would seem likely that the clashes between protestors and whalers will only get worse and lives will be endangered.

“Lives could have easily been lost this year when a collision between the protest boat the Ady Gil and the whaling vessel Shonan Maru II, saw the New Zealand flagged vessel sink in freezing waters,” Chris Carter said.

ENDS

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