Gallery

Australian Greens Senator Rachel Siewert has used Senate Estimates to raise questions about the dispersant chemicals used on the Montara oil spill off the West Australian coast.

Two chemicals from the Corexit family, the dispersants Corexit 9500A and Corexit 9527A were used on Montara, totalling of 44,720 litres of the 184,135 litres deployed.

Corexit is already banned in parts of Europe including the UK and is being used in huge volumes in the Gulf of Mexico.

Rachel spoke to ABC Radio's PM program to discuss the Montara investigation.

The annual whale hunt is about to commence in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary with Japanese whalers, including the factory ship the Nisshin Maru, in place for the slaughter of nearly 1,000 minke whales and 50 fin whales. The start of the hunt coincides with a brief visit to Japan by Kevin Rudd, who will stop over in Tokyo on his way to Copenhagen to meet the new Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama.

Rachel talks to The Wire about the crisis affecting emergency dialysis treatment in central Australia.

Copyright The Wire 2009

What they never told you:

Most eggs and meat products sold in supermarkets come from factory farms. Many cruel farming systems are being phased out elsewhere in the world, but Australia is lagging behind.

In Australia it is legal to confine a mother pig in a barren metal crate so small that she cannot even turn around. She can be left to suffer in this crate for her entire 4 month pregnancy.

Rachel talks to ABC's PM program about the Government's inaction on reinstating the RDA in the NT Intervention.

Copyright Australian Broadcasting Corporation 2009