Australian Greens Leader Bob Brown says acting Prime Minister Gillard's request that the Australian Maritime Safety Authority investigate yesterday's smashing of the Ady Gil by a Japanese patrol boat is like providing a magistrate but no police officer.

"Ms Gillard has to deal with Kevin Rudd's deliberate decision to abandon Australia's Antarctic waters to the Japanese whaling fleet. The prime source of information for this investigation will be Tokyo, not Canberra. Sea Shepherd will be left to do the best it can against the whole Japanese government whose evidence is based on one whopping lie - that the whaling is for scientific purposes."

"Ms Gillard should say whether AMSA will investigate the Japanese fleet's illegal whaling and illegal refuelling in Antarctic waters as well as its high-seas violence," Senator Brown said.

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