Garrett axes globetrotting whale envoy
THE Rudd government has quietly moved to axe its Special Envoy on Whaling after announcing the job with much fanfare before the last election.
The May Budget signals the end of the envoy, with no additional funding for the office or for the Government's plans to challenge to Japanese whaling in the International Court of Justice.
Despite scrapping these two election promises, taxpayers have already spent $300,000 on sending Special Envoy Sandy Hollway to nearly a dozen countries.
Vote: Has the Rudd Government sold out on whales?:
http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegrap...#vote-now-form
Mr Hollway, appointed in October, vainly attempted to stop Japanese whaling in the Southern Ocean.
After being touted by Environment Minister Peter Garrett as Australia's "first" anti-whaling envoy, the Budget confirms that the position has now been scrapped - with no further funding allocated for the role.
Mr Garrett vowed to appoint an envoy in December, 2007 but it took him until October, 2008 to give Mr Hollway the job.
The role lasted barely five months, with the contract ending - again without fanfare - in early March. Mr Garrett tried to dodge the issue yesterday.
"The Envoy is part of our comprehensive diplomatic engagement on this issue," his spokesman said.
Asked directly about the lack of Budget funding, the spokesman said costs incurred in the coming year as Australia continued its efforts to bring an end to commercial and the so-called "scientific" whaling would be accounted for in the next Budget.
But The Sunday Telegraph understands Mr Hollway's contract ends next month and has not been extended.
The Safeguarding Our Marine Diversity paper in this year's Budget confirms $300,000 was spent on the envoy in 2008-09.
Mr Hollway's 18-day expedition across Africa, Europe and Japan from mid-February to early March this year included South Africa, Kenya, the UK, Germany, the Czech Republic, Spain, Portugal, Sweden and Japan. Other trips were made to the US and New Zealand.
Opposition environment spokesman Greg Hunt has condemned the money spent by the Government on the now-axed envoy's position. Mr Hunt said: "Last week we discovered that Mr Garrett spent nearly a quarter of a million dollars on a mammoth tour to the International Whaling Commission meeting in Chile last year.
"The touring party of 15 staff and various officials had more members than the Australian cricket team.
"This is a government that can (rack) up billions of dollars in debt without blinking but is happy to fund overseas travel for diplomatic chit-chats (that have) failed to deliver a ban on whaling."
The blaze of publicity surrounding the appointment of a Whaling Commissioner was part of a raft of high-profile measures aimed at Japan soon after the election.
Diplomatic observers at the time said these moves risked opening the biggest bilateral rift since World War II.
At the time, Mr Garrett labelled Japanese "scientific whaling" a sham and appointed Mr Hollway as part an Australian diplomatic offensive to end the practice. But the Opposition claims the Government's effort has been dogged by incompetence and failure.
_____________________________________
Editorial - Peter Garrett betrays the whales
WHAT a load of blubber.
In accordance with what has become standard operating procedure for the Federal Government, the Special Envoy on Whaling was quietly harpooned in last week's Budget with little attention or mourning.
As reported in The Sunday Telegraph today, the position cost taxpayers $300,000 for the 2008-09 financial year. And the bill is still being tallied.
In total, $13.9 million has been spent on the Government's anti-whaling "information campaign," including $83,000 setting up a call centre that took just 1616 calls in three months.
Sadly, that money has achieved very little for the creatures it sought to protect from Japanese whaling interests.
The Special Envoy on Whaling's unheralded demise contrasts dramatically with the fanfare with which Environment Minister Peter Garrett has talked up the Government's policy on tackling the whaling issue. This is a backflip on an election promise, pure and simple.
Before being elected in November, 2007, Peter Garrett and Kevin Rudd promised a Labor win would mean a well-funded, committed campaign to end the slaughter of whales in the Great Southern Ocean.
The navy would be sent out to intercept Japanese whaling vessels, while the RAAF would conduct surveillance operations.
Ultimately, the Garrett/Rudd alliance pledged, Australia would make its case at the International Court of Justice.
"It will be one of the first things raised when Cabinet meets," Mr Garrett's office pledged on the eve of election victory.
"Using the navy is about heightening the pressure on Japan to stop killing whales."
Public opinion applauded these sentiments, even if some quarters were sceptical about just how committed the diplomacy-savvy Rudd would actually be.
But at the same time, a well-orchestrated and received public campaign by our sister newspaper The Daily Telegraph urged the new Government on.
The hollow men could hardly miss sniffing the message on the wind.
By January, 2008, Mr Garrett was announcing the Special Envoy's position was set to be created. it took until October, however, for Sandy Holloway, a respected senior bureaucrat, to be appointed.
In that time, Mr Garrett had made a forlorn figure at the International Whaling Commission in June, where Australia failed to push for a vote on a whaling ban. Missing, as well, was Australia's much-vaunted operation in the Southern Ocean.
Mr Holloway's contract ended barely five months after it had begun.
And what did Australian taxpayers get for their $300,000 and counting?
Trips to South Africa, Kenya, Britain, Germany, the Czech Republic, Spain, Portugal, Sweden, the US, New Zealand and Japan - and not a single whale saved so far and none likely to be. What the Australian taxpayer effectively paid for was a whole lot of spin.
When the debate ran hot, so did the Government. The Daily Telegraph's petition delivered 131,965 signatures to the Japanese Government in February, 2008, at the height of the Government's anti-whaling campaign.
Several months later, a second petition carrying 50,000 signatures was delivered.
Public interest has dropped off - and so has the Government's, it would seem.
This is a huge embarrassment for Peter Garrett. Whaling was the single issue the Environment Minister has defined his parliamentary record on.
Yet, after 18 months, zero has been achieved except for the public perception that steps were being taken.
Sadly for the whales, those steps have led nowhere.
Australia Drops Anti-Whaling Campaign
A bloody useless event.
Linear Mode
