"One of the surprising things about the United States diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks since late last year is just how unsurprising most of their contents have turned out to be", writes Dr Tim Stephens on ABC's The Drum Unleashed.

"Admittedly only a fraction of the cables have been published, but so far most WikiLeaks 'revelations' have been revelatory of little except the considerable creative writing skills of the US diplomatic corps.

"So it is the case with many of the cables concerning Australia, which have contained astounding divulgences such as that the Foreign Minister, Kevin Rudd, is supportive of Israel.
"Likewise, the cables concerning the Australian Government's efforts to shut down Japan's 'scientific' whaling program, which were parsed with much fanfare in the Fairfax papers this week, tell us nothing that is new or astounding.
"It was reported on Tuesday that 'Australia was secretly prepared to cut a deal with Japan to accept a continued whale hunt even though it publicly moved to haul Tokyo before an international court over its "scientific" whaling program.'

"But it has never been a secret that Australia and a number of other states including the United States have been seeking to 'cut a deal' with Japan so that it would drastically reduce or phase out its large-scale whaling operations."

View the entire article - A Whale of a Story - ABC's The Drum Unleashed.