Rudd cleared the way for the federal court to make a nonsense decision regarding Japanese whaling in Antarctic waters.
It is a useful decision for Rudd because it means he doesn't have to make it, and he probably won't enforce it either.
It will reinforce an earlier decision of Rudd to use Australian defense assets to photograph Japanese whalers going about legal activity.
A lot of greenhouse gas will be built up surrounding this decision. Maybe this was the activity that Rudd alluded to needing the defense force for during the election campaign? The sad thing is, just as many defense personnel will die, possibly more, because defense forces remove safety procedures of engagement for peace time activity. Which is why the US defense force experiences more casualties in peace time than in war time.
Rudd tight-lipped after Reserve meeting on inflation
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PRIME Minister Kevin Rudd has refused to comment after meeting Reserve Bank of Australia and Treasury officials to discuss inflation.
Asked if he was now more concerned about inflation than prior to the meeting, Mr Rudd said: "The Treasurer (Wayne Swan) and I have been making statements about this for some time.
"I had a chat to the bank and others about our national economic challenges, (a) private meeting, so there you go.''
He declined to comment further on the discussions, which are understood to have included Reserve Bank deputy governor Ric Battellino and Treasury secretary Ken Henry.
Mr Rudd had said earlier the meeting was called to help formulate the Federal Government's fiscal policy for the year ahead.
"Front and centre this year is Australia dealing effectively with the national inflation problem that we have been left by the Howard-Costello Government,'' he told reporters.
"It's real, it exists, we've seen the consequences of that already in terms of adjustments to interest rates in recent times.
"The purpose of my meeting today with Reserve Bank officials is to discuss that inflation challenge.
"Those discussions will shape my own thinking, together with the Treasurer and Finance Minister's thinking, and will shape this year's fiscal strategy.''
An inflation report released yesterday ahead of next week's official Consumer Price Index showed all annual measures of price rises are well above the RBA's 2 to 3 per cent inflation target.
The RBA is expected to lift official interest rates when it meets next month.
Australia's four major banks - National Australia Bank, Commonwealth Bank, ANZ and Westpac - have all pre-empted the RBA's decision and already increased their standard variable home loan rates by between 0.1 and 0.2 percentage points.
The banks blame increased overseas borrowing costs triggered by the collapse of the US sub-prime market last year for their decisions.
Federal Court rules killing whales is illegal
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THE Federal Court of Australia has ordered a Japanese whaling company to stop killing whales in Australian Antarctic waters.
The Humane Society International launched legal action against whaler Kyodo Senpaku Kaisha Ltd in 2004, seeking a Federal Court injunction against harvesting in the Australian Whale Sanctuary in Antarctic waters.
HSI claims the company has slaughtered 1253 minke whales and nine fin whales since the sanctuary was declared in 2000, in breach of Australian domestic law protecting the animals.
The Howard government opposed HSI's claim saying that it would cause international disagreement, but the Rudd Government withdrew government objections to the court case.
Australians are now waiting to see whether the Rudd Government will enforce the Federal Court's ruling against the Japanese whalers.
Justice Jim Allsop today said unless restrained, the Japanese company would continue to "kill, injure, take and interfere with" Antarctic minke whales and fin whales.
He also said the company had targeted humpback whales in the Australian whale sanctuary in contravention of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act.
"The respondent has, on the evidence, no presence or assets within the jurisdiction," Justice Allsop said.
"Unless the respondent's vessels enter Australia, thus exposing themselves to possible arrest or seizure, the applicant acknowledges that there is no practical mechanism by which orders of this court can be enforced."
HSI spokeswoman Nicola Beynon earlier said the society could only go "so far".
"We can bring the matter to court and we can secure the injunction, but it will be over to the Australian Government to enforce the injunction," she said.
With The Adelaide Advertiser
Court whaling ban can't be enforced
ReplyDeleteBy James Madden and Peter Alford
A JAPANESE whaling company was yesterday ordered by the Federal Court to stop killing whales in Australian Antarctic waters, but there are doubts as to whether the Rudd Government will seek to enforce the ban.
The Humane Society International took Kyodo Senpaku Kaisha Ltd to court in 2004, seeking an injunction against the company's slaughter of whales in the Australian Whale Sanctuary off the coast of Antarctica.
Yesterday, judge James Allsop found in favour of the HSI, ruling that KSK had acted illegally by killing more than 1000 minke and fin whales in the area since 2000.
"Unless restrained it will continue to kill, injure, take and interfere with them, and treat and possess them," he said.
The judge also acknowledged the difficulty of enforcing the ban.
"The respondent (KSK) has, on the evidence, no presence or assets within the jurisdiction," Justice Allsop said. "Unless the respondent's vessels enter Australia, thus exposing themselves to possible arrest or seizure, the applicant acknowledges that there is no practical mechanism by which orders of this court can be enforced."
Not only is the Federal Government keen to avoid an ugly row with its biggest trade partner, but several other countries do not recognise Australia's claim to its "exclusive economic zone", which extends for 200 nautical miles from the Australian Antarctic Territory shore.
Only New Zealand, France, Norway and Britain recognise Australia's claim to the sanctuary, and international maritime law experts believe intervention in Japan's whaling activities there could breach international law.
Federal Environment Minister Peter Garrett yesterday refused to commit the new Government to enforcing the court's orders, despite pledging before last year's election that Labor would "stand up to the Japanese whalers".
"This will be a long and a protracted endeavour, and we're committed to taking it all the way through," Mr Garrett said. "But our intention to continue to have an overall, holistic and fair-dinkum approach to opposing Japanese so-called scientific whaling is absolutely clear."
Federal Attorney-General Robert McClelland said last night that the Government would not immediately intercept the whaling fleet to serve the injunction.
"We would go through the normal channels of requesting the Government of Japan to serve the order on the Japanese company," Mr McClelland said.
But Japanese officials yesterday insisted the Federal Court decision would have no effect on their "research whaling".
"Our position is every clear and simple: Australia claims jurisdiction over part of the Antarctic Ocean which is not recognised by Japan," a spokesman for the government-sponsored Institute of Cetacean Research told The Australian. And Hideki Moronuki, head of the Japan Fisheries Agency's whaling section, described yesterday's judgment as an Australian domestic matter.
"We are conducting perfectly legal research activities there and we are planning to take samples and scientific measures in order to establish an appropriate management scheme for whaling in the Antarctic Ocean," he said.
Additional reporting: Siobhain Ryan