Rock star Aussie minister off-key on whales: Japanese official

AFP, March, 2008

SYDNEY (AFP) — In the days when Australia's environment minister was a rock star and Japan's whaling chief was a student, they sang from the same songbook -- but not any more.

Environment Minister Peter Garrett, former frontman for protest rockers Midnight Oil, now leads Australia's attempts to force Japan to end its whaling programme.

The chief of whaling at Japan's Fisheries Agency, Hideki Moronuki, leads the defence -- and he says Garrett has lost a fan.

"When I was a high-school student I used to listen to Midnight Oil. When I was a high-school student I liked his music. Now I don't," Moronuki told the Australian Associated Press.

Garrett was less diplomatic than previous Australian environment ministers and more aggressive, he said in a telephone interview from ...