Economy
‘New polling: Salmon governance failure bites for Hodgman’. Bonham on separate poll …
WEDNESDAY, July 26 …
• Mercury: Glamorgan Spring Bay Council approves planning scheme change for Okehampton Bay foreshore
TUESDAY, July 25 …
• Environment Tasmania: Don’t zone Tassie’s east coast industrial Tasmania’s peak environment group will be attending the meeting of Glamorgan Spring Bay Council tonight to object to an application by salmon farming giant, Tassal, to have endangered whale calving habitat on Tasmania’s east coast zoned industrial. 6000 Environment Tasmania supporters have written to Council objecting to rezoning of ‘Environmental Management’ and ‘Public Reserve’ land and water, to ‘light industrial’ zoning with a variation to allow for industrial aquaculture operations …
THE EXPERT Dr Kevin Bonham has today published on the implications of a separate ReachTEL poll done for Mercury …
• Reachtel: It’s all about Lyons
First published July 21
New polling by Reachtel released today shows significant community concerns about outdated salmon farming practices and the influence of big salmon companies over the Hodgman Liberal Government in Tasmania.
“More than half of voters in Lyons are saying the salmon industry is risking jobs by not upgrading their infrastructure and getting offshore,” says Laura Kelly, Strategy Director at Environment Tasmania, “this reflects what we are hearing out in the community – everyone knows how important salmon is for Tassie, but they can’t understand why the industry doesn’t just use some of their ample profits to modernise and get offshore.”
“The Hodgman government’s decision to cosy up to Tassal rather than govern for the whole community is reflected in these poor polling numbers, while alternatives like Jacquie Lambie power ahead, and the Greens hold strong.”
“The bounce in the polls Bec White has secured around the state isn’t translating to Lyons. Where Labor has yet to take any meaningful leadership position on Tassal’s divisive plans to industrialise Okehampton Bay.”
“Allowing Tassal to ignore broad community opposition and plow ahead with Okehampton Bay will be bad for Brand Tasmania and based on this polling, could prove toxic in the looming election. Our political leaders need to be looking for a fix, rather than bending over for Tassal and trying to sweep community concerns under the rug,” Ms Kelly said.
From the ReachTELL poll, released today by The Australia Institute …
*65+
strongly agree 25.7%
Agree 23.5%
Unsure 38.7%
Disagree 7.1%
Strongly disagree 5.0%
The ReachTEL poll result is available HERE
• ABC: East coast mayor hoses down salmon farming as Tasmania election issue