A mock weigh-in of a six metre replica whale ‘caught’ by John Key has appeared in front of his electorate office with Greenpeace calling on him to reject any deal that would legitimise commercial whaling.
The proposal has been developed by a small working group of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) chaired by former New Zealand Prime Minister Sir Geoffrey Palmer. In his words both sides on the issue need to "swallow a dead rat" to reach a compromise.
This is a critical time for whales, but rather than standing firm to our principles the New Zealand Government is instead abandoning the whales and our traditional allies in whale conservation. At the moment it's our own government that is shaping up to be the dirty rat in this deal!
New Zealand must work to save the whales, not the whalers.
We need action to stop this proposal. We need to stand up and say "no" to our Government undermining the most important protection the whales have - the moratorium on commercial whaling and the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary.
New Zealand's history has been forged on our strong conservation values. We've told the world we wont have nuclear ships entering our harbours. We've promoted peace instead of war. Our clean, green reputation is not just an international selling point but is a reflection of how we see ourselves.
In the last few months our national values have been under increasing attack by the Government. First, it proposed opening up precious conservation land to mining and now it's supporting a deal that would legitimise commercial whaling.
We stand to lose something very precious here.
Meanwhile, the Australian Government is standing firm and taking the sort of no-nonsense stance the world once credited with being typically Kiwi. It says whaling in the Southern Ocean must stop within five years. It's also threatening to take Japan to the International Court of Justice to force the issue if diplomacy fails.
Greenpeace says NZ must vote against any deal which would legitimise commercial whaling, and should support Australia's proposal to end whaling in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary.
Three decades campaigning for the whales
Greenpeace has campaigned to end commercial whaling since 1975 when we took action against Soviet whalers. Since then we have carried out direct action against whalers from Australia, Brazil, Iceland, Peru, Japan, Norway and Spain. Many of these countries now oppose whaling, only Iceland, Japan and Norway continue.
For the last two years we've been focusing our efforts in Japan as we recognise this is where the decision to end whaling in the Southern Ocean will be made. Currently, two of our activists, known as the Tokyo Two, are on trial in Japan facing up to ten years in jail for their part in revealing the corruption, scandal and waste in the taxpayer funded Japanese whaling programme.
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