Won't tell, na, na, na,na, na! says Garrett

Photograph from Google Images

The Age revealed this little tit bit last week as Japan pressures Australia to act against anti-whaling protestors:

Attempts by the Greens to obtain information on Japanese whaling gathered by the Australian patrol ship Oceanic Viking last year have been rejected.

The Environment Department has ruled that releasing images or data would "adversely affect the confidence Japan would have in our diplomatic efforts to achieve an end to 'scientific whaling' ".

Rather an interesting reason.

It would appear that Environment Minister Peter Garrett and his department are withholding information not because of something as important as national security or for operational reasons, but because the information and surveillance images would too graphically show just how 'unscientific' Japanese whaling in the Antarctic really is.

Bending over backwards would be a mild description of the Rudd Government's current attitude to Japanese demands.