McCully throws temper tantrum

Labour’s Chris Carter says Foreign Minister Murray McCully’s refusal to clarify his Government’s position on allowing limited commercial whaling to proceed is petty.

“Today I received a call informing me that a briefing for Opposition MPs on John Key’s confused whaling initiative, which was supposed to be delivered at 10.00am by MFAT officials and New Zealand’s IWC representative Sir Geoffrey Palmer, has been cancelled,” Chris Carter said.

“That meeting had been specifically requested by the Foreign Minister after the public shambles of his Government’s policy began to gain attention.

“The reason given by Murray McCully’s office was that the Minister was ‘very upset’ about my blog of yesterday, where I revealed from undisclosed sources within DOC and MFAT, that the National Government was about to quietly dump its initiative proposing a return to limited commercial whaling. The Minister had decided to cancel the briefing to ‘punish’ me!

“Yesterday I revealed that MFAT and DOC staff were concerned that traditional allies at the IWC don’t support New Zealand’s policy proposal. This is hardly surprising as domestic polling seems to confirm that a majority of New Zealanders don’t either.

“I guess Murray McCully’s strong reaction merely confirms that the information I have received from concerned officials is correct and we are going to see yet another flip-flop from the Key Government.

“At least this is one flip flop which Labour does agree with and we hope John Key does abandon his idea to lifting the international moratorium on commercial whaling.

“This whole shambles around New Zealand’s position on whaling smacks of political amateurism and will have harmed our international reputation among traditional conservation allies like the UK, Australia, Brazil and South Africa. It will also compound a growing international scepticism around our 100% Pure NZ brand, as the Economist highlighted last week.”

ENDS

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Scoop Business: Bathurst Gets Nod For DoC Access To Denniston Mine

Conservation Minister Nick Smith has approved access over conservation estate land for Bathurst Resources to develop an open cast coal mine on the Denniston Plateau, above Westport, to the dismay of environmental opponents.

The timing for Smith’s move avoids Bathurst having to resubmit applications for access agreements under the revised Crown Minerals Act, which comes into force tomorrow and would have required public consultation.

The announcement lands in the middle of delicate negotiations between the company, environmental groups and other interested parties that could pave the way to a broader agreement on the Escarpment proposal, whose resource consents are still subject to court appeals. More>>