With reports that Japanese harpoon ship Yushin Maru No 3 is tailing anti whaling ship Bob Barker as it heads for Australia's whale sanctuary around World Heritage listed Macquarie Island, the Australian Greens are calling for the Prime Minister to immediately despatch a monitoring vessel and tell Tokyo this Japanese ship is not welcome in Australian waters.

Today brings further evidence of the need for Australia to send a patrol boat to the Southern Ocean to monitor Japanese whalers, Australian Greens Leader Bob Brown said.

"News of the assault on Sea Shepherd crew members again points to the urgent need for an Australian patrol vessel to be on site," Senator Brown said in Hobart.

Australian Greens Leader Senator Bob Brown responds to news that government has signed a "conservation agreement" that will destroy an area of Tasmanian forests that is equivalent to more than 1000 MCGs. He also announces that he has written to the Attorney-General to request an investigation into the Japanese whaling ships that were in the Australian whaling sanctuary this week.

Australian Greens Leader Senator Bob Brown releases private senator's bill which would require Australia to monitor foreign whaling vessels in and around the Australian Whale Sanctuary. He also talks about the governments' failure to protect 430,000ha of Tasmanian forests as part of the intergovernmental agreement and briefly talks about the proposed weakening of national environmental protection laws.  

A bill to ensure that if future whaling occurs in Australia's whale sanctuaries - either off Australia or Antarctica - a policing vessel is on the scene has been sent to the Opposition.

The Bill is simple amendment to the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act which inserts a new section:

Schedule 1-Amendment of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999

1.     After section 236

Insert:

236A  Monitoring foreign whaling vessels

A bill to ensure that if future whaling occurs in Australia's whale sanctuaries - either off Australia or Antarctica - a policing vessel is on the scene has been sent to the Opposition.

The Bill is simple amendment to the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act which inserts a new section:

Schedule 1-Amendment of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999

1.     After section 236

Insert:

236A  Monitoring foreign whaling vessels

Early this morning the Japanese harpoon ship Yushin Maru III was holding fast in Australia’s World Heritage Area and territorial waters off Macquarie Island.  This is despite a call from Australia to have the ship exit our territory.

The ship is breaking Australian law which prohibits the entry of such vessels into our exclusive economic zone as well as territorial waters.

“At this stage a naval vessel should be dispatched to the Macquarie Island World Heritage Area to assert Australian law,” Senator Brown said.

Australian Greens Leader Senator Bob Brown speaks to the media about the Japanese whaling vessel entering Australian waters and World Heritage area and calls on the government to send a naval vessel to the area. He also talks about his suspension of regular talks with the Prime Minister in response to the dishonouring of the Tasmanian forests agreement which was supposed to immediately protect 430,000ha of high conservation value forest but instead has seen logging continue.

Australian Greens Leader Senator Bob Brown says that the Japanese whaling ship Yushin Maru III, with harpoon up front, is now inside Australian territorial waters and the World Heritage area of the subantarctic Macquarie Island. 

The Gillard government’s failure to do anything at all about this summer’s illegal Japanese whaling in Australia’s Antarctic waters leaves the Prime Minister’s admonition of three whaling activists looking insipid.

It’s a good thing that the Southern Ocean patrol ship ‘Ocean Protector’ is going to pick these three brave Australians off the Shonan Maru II, but the ship should then be allowed to live up to its name and move on to the Antarctic whaling arena.