Over the weekend the International Whaling Commission had an informal meeting in Florida to discuss a proposed deal which would see the Japanese allowed to resume commercial whaling. Australia opposed the deal. New Zealand supported it. The government is desperately trying to spin this and downplay it, but the fact remains: under National, we are now officially a pro-whaling country, which supports the commercial, for-profit slaughter of whales.
You can see National's logic: they have a hard-on for an FTA with Japan, and they don't want a "silly" issue like whaling to interfere with the chance for their big business mates to make more money. But the fact they regard it as a minor and dispensable issue shows how out of touch they are with New Zealanders. As with mining in national parks, and the nuclear ban, opposition to whaling is a fundamental issue of national identity. Its part of who we are as a country. And National is meddling with that at its peril.
The government needs to be persuaded to reverse this abhorrent pro-whaling stance, and fast. They're pissing away our environmental credibility, and pissing on the national image of ordinary kiwis. If you object to this, then I suggest emailing your local National MP (list here, contact details (including an email form) on the individual pages, if you don't know which electorate you are in, then you can find out here). Backbenchers may not have much power, but when they are inundated with angry letters from their constituents, they tend to notice. So do your bit, and speak up.
