GREENS SENATOR ATTACKS PM OVER WHALING

Greens Senator Bob Brown has accused the Prime Minister of not doing nearly enough to stop Japan's proposed expanded whaling program:

“Belatedly, Mr Howard has sent Mr Koizumi a letter saying ‘good friends should always feel free to disagree’. The medium is the message and it’s downbeat. Mr Koizumi didn’t send a letter, he phoned Mr Howard, to get our troops sent to Iraq to protect the Japanese,” Senator Brown said.

The Howard Government’s approach is weak, late and losing. The whales are seriously at stake. There will be a global furore which diplomatic niceties are not going to remedy,” Senator Brown said.

No doubt the Japanese will be impressed with Bob's diplomatic effort, in which whales are as deserving of Australian protection as are Japanese soldiers.