Why did it take so long?

After standing on the sidelines for two years, the New Zealand government has finally joined Australia's case against Japanese whaling at the International Court of Justice. Good. Kiwis love whales and hate whaling, and our government should represent that view on the world stage. And while its taken them a long time to get round to it, they are at last doing the right thing.

At the same time, we should be asking why it took so long. Why didn't the government join in immediately? What was Murray McCully doing for the past two years? Its difficult to see it as anything other than an example of National's knee-jerk anti-environmentalism and subservience to power. A different government would have acted more quickly, and been a better representative of New Zealand values.