'Whale kill' tapes 'should be released'

The federal government won't release its whale kill tapes for fear of annoying the
Japanese, the Australian Greens claim.

An Australian Customs vessel obtained footage of Japanese whaling in Antarctic
waters during the summer of 2007-08.
A short amount of footage was made public but most of it has never been seen.
Greens Senator Bob Brown tried unsuccessfully to see the footage under Freedom of
Information laws.
"Is this not an obsequious decision by the Rudd government to back down to the first
bit of pressure from Japan because it simply didn't like the bloody business of
whaling and the pictures of it being released to the world public," Senator Brown
told the Senate.
Minister Penny Wong said the full footage had not been released because of potential
legal action.
Labor had said it would use the footage to take Japanese whaling to an international
court, although no action has been taken yet.
Senator Wong said the government remained absolutely opposed to whaling.