Today the International Whaling Commission released its "compromise" of allowing limited commercial whaling. National had previously backed the move, putting itself out of step with world opinion and the New Zealand public. But instead of announcing their support, they've rejected it. So, does this mean National is backing away from its support for whaling?
Not really. They don't object on principle, but on the basis that the deal isn't good enough. In other words, they're just fine with the commercial slaughter of whales. But they've clearly done some polling and realised that, as they say in the press release, "New Zealanders will not accept this". And that we won't accept a government which supports it either.
