Aussies back Kiwi resolution to ban whaling

Australia will back New Zealand’s bid to have the International Whaling Commission adopt a court ruling banning Japan’s scientific whaling ­program.

Japan cancelled its 2014/15 season but is expected to present a new plan so it can resume whaling. Picture: AFP/AUSTRALIAN CUSTOMS

Australia will back New Zealand’s bid to have the International Whaling Commission adopt a court ruling banning Japan’s scientific whaling ­program.

This week’s IWC meeting in Slovenia will be its first since the International Court of Justice ruled in March that Japan’s annual Antarctic whale hunt was for commercial, not scientific purposes, and therefore illegal.

Japan cancelled its 2014/15 season but is expected to present a new plan that meets the ICJ’s scientific requirements so it can resume whaling.

New Zealand has put forward a resolution to incorporate the ICJ’s decision into the IWC’s rules.

Australia would support the resolution, Environment Minister Greg Hunt said.

“Australia will vote to make sure there’s a permanent ban on whaling and to uphold the International Court of Justice decision,” Mr Hunt said. “This time we come armed with an ICJ decision and our hope and our belief is this is the moment when the world can respectfully work to end the practice of commercial whaling or scientific whaling, which has been justified whereas in reality it’s simply commercial whaling by another name.”

A bid for Greenland’s subsistence whaling quota to be enlarged will also be controversial.

“We are dealing with some contentious issues …” said Ryan Wulff, deputy US commissioner to the IWC.

The IWC said it had moved “complex” issues to the top of the agenda to “allow maximum time to find ways of reaching consensus”.

Commercial whaling is banned under a 1986 IWC moratorium, which has resulted in a rebound of many species that were hunted to near-extinction.