AUSTRALIA is likely to abandon its $1 million attempt to take Japan to the international court over whaling after New Zealand gave up plans to use legal action to stop the cull. The Rudd Government embraced the use of the UN’s international court soon after the election, using aircraft and ships to gather evidence against Japanese whalers in the Southern Ocean.
But the New Zealand Government has since discovered “significant difficulties” with taking Japan to the international court and has abandoned the tactic.
The hunt for evidence against Japan in its “scientific hunt” for whales became highly contentious when the crew of the environmental crusader ship Sea Shepherd was accused of piracy and violence after activists threw bottles of “acid” and boarded a Japanese whaling ship.
Ahead of official visits to Japan by Kevin Rudd next month and Foreign Minister Stephen Smith this week, expectation is growing that Australia’s aggressive attempt to take Japan to court over whaling will lapse.
Last night, Mr Smith told The Australian the Government would make a final decision on whether to pursue Japan in an international court “at an appropriate time” based on legal advice and the evidence gathered by the Customs vessel Oceanic Viking.
Speaking from South Korea, he said the Government would make its decision on legal action “in dialogue with the Japanese Government”.
The likelihood of a resolution without going to an international court has increased after the New Zealand Government dropped its plans to build an international case against Japan over whaling.