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Report of the national task force on whaling
Environment Program of the Environment, Sport and Territories Portfolio
ISBN 0642 214050
© Commonwealth of Australia 1997
The Task Force was charged with the responsibility of advising the Federal Minister for the Environment on the most practical ways to achieve Australia’s stated policy of bringing about a permanent ban on commercial whaling world-wide.
In our report we argue for Australia’s continued active participation in the International Whaling Commission. The Commission has its faults, which we recognise, but we believe that it still offers the best international forum in which to achieve Australia’s aims and is still the international organisation best placed to lead on whaling issues. This does not mean that we ignore other relevant international fora or organisations. Some of these are associated directly with the International Whaling Commission; others are specifically conservation related (for example, the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES)). Some are more technical-legal (for example, the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS)); and yet others more political in their nature (for example, the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) or the South Pacific Forum). Our report addresses these questions and recommends that Australia’s representatives, at political, official and non-government levels, become active leaders in supporting our stated national objective.
During the course of the Task Force’s inquiry, we were saddened to learn of the death, on 20 April 1997, of Sir Sydney Frost. Readers of our report will be aware of the enormous role played by Sir Sydney, through his Inquiry into Whales and Whaling, in shaping Australia’s public policy in relation to whaling. It was Sir Sydney’s report that presented the most compelling evidence to persuade the Australian Government to ban whaling in Australia and take an international lead against whaling world-wide.
Sir Sydney Frost was born on 13 February 1916 and, rising from an economically and socially disadvantaged position, graduated with great distinction in law from Melbourne University. He worked as a solicitor and served in the AIF from 1941 to 1945. After the war he practiced at the Victorian Bar and was appointed as a Judge of the Victorian County Court. He moved to New Guinea as a Judge of the Supreme Court and became that country’s first Chief Justice, retiring in 1978. He served in many significant community and judicial positions after his retirement in Melbourne. In 1978 the Fraser Government appointed Sir Sydney to head Australia’s first national inquiry into whaling.
The members of the Task Force, together with everyone committed to whale conservation and protection, recognise their debt to Sir Sydney. We hope that our report will do justice to his memory and will continue the pioneering work he began, to bring about an eventual worldwide ban on commercial whaling.