Poll: Australians want government to intervene against Japan whale poachers – ‘The Prime Minister of Australia is ignoring the will of the Australian people’
21 December 2015 (Maritime Executive) – A national poll, commissioned by Sea Shepherd Australia and undertaken by Australian market research company Roy Morgan Research, has shown that 76.9 percent of Australians want the Federal Government to send a ship to oppose Japanese whaling in the Southern Ocean. The poll, involving 1,000 people, was announced by Sea Shepherd as part of an on-going campaign against whaling globally. In March 2014, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) declared Japan’s whaling program to be commercial and illegal, and ordered that it stop immediately. Japan said at the time that it would respect the decision. However, within months Japan had unveiled its plans for a new whaling program titled NEWREP-A, under which a further 4,000 protected Minke whales would be slaughtered over a 12 year period. Japan announced in October that it will ignore the International Court of Justice decision and will resume whaling in the Southern Ocean. The move sparked calls for the Australian government to make good an election promise and send a vessel to the area. On 18 November 2015, the Australian Federal Court found the Japanese government-funded whaling company, Kyodo Senpaku Kaisha Ltd, guilty of breaching a 2008 order to stop killing whales in the Australian Whale Sanctuary, and fined if A$1 million for the breach. [more]
Poll: Australians Want Government to Intervene on Whaling
By Captain Paul Watson
21 December 2015 (Facebook) – 76.9% of Australians want Australia to take take real action to stop illegal Japanese whaling. That is the result of a Sea Shepherd-commissioned poll on the subject released today. Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull told Japanese Prime Minister Shinzi Abe that he is “deeply disappointed”. And that was it. That is all he did, and that is all it looks like Australia intends to do. In other words, all Australians should just be “deeply disappointed” and accept that Australia will do nothing despite:
- The Japanese whaling fleet now heading to the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary to kill whales.
- That this whaling fleet is intending to kill whales in direct violation of a court order by the International Court of Justice.
- That the Japanese whaling fleet has been in contempt of the Australian Federal Court since 2008 and has been fined one million dollars for which they refuse to pay.
- That Japanese whaling in the Southern Ocean is prohibited by the International Whaling Commission.
Can Malcolm Turnbill spell the word I-L-L-E-G-A-L? Instead Malcolm Turnbull wants to give Japan $50 billion dollars to build some submarines so Australia can play war games with the new imperial Japanese Navy. This is insane. The majority of Australians want Japan to be prohibited from whaling in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary and in the Australian Antarctic Territory. The Prime Minister of Australia is ignoring the will of the Australian people. This is not democracy. This is government by special interests. Prime Minster Abe told Prime Minster Turnbull to take action against Sea Shepherd efforts to obstruct illegal Japanese whaling operations and Prime Minster Turnbull said nothing. Abe called Sea Shepherd’s actions “violent and extremist” and Turnbull did not challenge him despite the fact that Sea Shepherd has not injured anyone, Japanese whalers have injured Sea Shepherd crew members, and what is extreme about intervening against am established illegal activity? Australians should demand that Australia not grant a $50 billion dollar contract to Japan to build submarines. Australians should demand that Australia collect the one million dollar fine against Japan and use it to fuel a ship to send down to the Southern Ocean to stop the Japanese poachers. Malcolm Turnbull needs to respect the will of his own people instead of bowing low and groveling before the likes of a whale killing, Fukushima white-washing, ocean raping, war atrocity-denying Shinzo Abe.
