Greens leader Bob Brown says the government's legal action against Japanese whaling will not stop the whaling fleets soon enough.
Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said on Friday the government would lodge a formal application in the International Court of Justice in The Hague next week.
It represents a key election promise made by Kevin Rudd at the 2007 election.
Senator Brown said on Friday the legal action was timed to coincide with the upcoming federal election.
"It's belated, it's welcome, but it's not enough," he told reporters in Hobart. "They know it's not going to see any finality before the election.
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It is very careful election engineering, rather than any stay on the harpoons.
"The Japanese whaling fleet will be back down here in summer and it knows the Australian government is going to do nothing about that at all."
