Rudd calls for calm in whaling standoff ("this is commercial whaling")

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has called on the Japanese government and environmental activists to exercise restraint to allow the safe return of two men being detained on a Japanese whaling vessel. ...

Speaking in Brisbane, Mr Rudd said Foreign Minister Stephen Smith was in constant talks with Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda to procure their immediate safe return.

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"The key challenge is how do we bring about the end of commercial whaling, period, into the future, that's what I'm concerned about," he said.

"And (that is) the reason I have foreshadowed, for some time now, the absolute importance of accumulating an evidence base which underpins a possible legal action (that) has that as its single objective.

"This is not scientific whaling - this is commercial whaling."