Media release – Guy Barnett, Minister for Primary Industries and Water, 28 September 2021

Working together to develop Tasmania’s 10-Year Salmon Plan

The Tasmanian Government is developing a new 10-Year Salmon Plan over the next 12 months.  The Plan will be developed based on the principles of:

  • There being no net increase in leased farming areas in Tasmanian waters for 12 months;
  • Future growth lies in land-based and off-shore salmon farming;
  • World’s best practice through continuous improvement; and
  • Strict independent regulation.

In developing the 10-Year Salmon Plan, the Government is determined to allow thorough involvement from industry and the community in the process. The draft project outline released today provides for multiple phases of consultation including public meetings and the establishment of a dedicated forum.

Phases of the project will include:

Now until Quarter 2, 2022:

  • Pre-consultation with stakeholders, including but not limited to scientific institutions, NGOs, community groups, farmers, industry supply chain members, peak bodies and different levels of government; and
  • Based on pre-consultation, confirmation of timeframes and establishment of a dedicated “Salmon 2023 Forum” with broad representation from the groups identified above.

Quarter 2 and Quarter 3, 2022:

  • Development of an issues paper;
  • Public consultation on the issues paper including first Salmon 2023 Forum, regional public meetings and submission process via dedicated DPIPWE website;
  • Release of Draft 10-Year Salmon Plan; and
  • Consultation on Draft 10-Year Salmon Plan including second Salmon 2023 Forum, regional public meetings and submission process via dedicated DPIPWE website.

Quarter 4, 2022:

  • Final 10-year Salmon Plan released.

1 January, 2023:

  • 10-year Salmon Plan commences.

The Government is today also releasing the Second Progress Report on the 2017 Sustainable Industry Growth Plan.

This final progress report provides an update on the actions underway since the first report was released in 2017, and demonstrates the journey of continuous improvement.

Key achievements to date include:

  • Transferring responsibility for the environmental regulation of the industry to the independent Environment Protection Authority (EPA) and the requirement for new environmental licences, along with environmental monitoring;
  • A zero-tolerance policy on marine farming debris;
  • Greater transparency through publishing environmental, fish health and other industry data on the Salmon Portal, as well as benchmarking the Tasmanian industry through the Tasmanian Salmon Industry Environmental Scorecard; and
  • Significant investments by Government and industry into science and research and development.

The Progress Report can be accessed at https://dpipwe.tas.gov.au/sea-fishing-aquaculture/marine-farming-aquaculture/salmon-farming/salmon-industry-growth-plan

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Media release – Bob Brown Foundation, 27 September 2021

Salmon plot confirmed: Brown.

Today’s revelation of a federal-state Liberals agreement for Tasmanian fish farming to expand beyond the five-kilometre state jurisdiction into Commonwealth waters confirms the secret maps made public by Neighbours of Fish Farming at the Cygnet Town Hall meeting nine days ago, Bob Brown said in Cygnet this afternoon.

“While the premier and other politicians said no such maps exist, this announcement says that they do. The government politicians have been forced into endorsing this astonishing expansion long before they otherwise would have. This agreement is politicians going behind the public’s back, at the behest of the salmon companies and the out-of-state billionaires lining up to take them over, to steal Tasmania’s publicly-owned oceans.

The plan is to bring enormous fish pens using Norwegian design, and manufactured in Chinese shipyards, to Tasmania to seize our offshore waters for industrial fish farming, wind farms, and potential hydrogen production – massive integrated off-shore factories – with no public consultation. This is politicians colluding against the Tasmanian public interest with a disgusting disdain for the people who will bear the burden of environmental, lifestyle, and scenic degradation coming down the line.

Duniam and Barnett have treated their fellow Tasmanians with contempt. It took community group Neighbours of Fish Farming to force this monumental plot to exploit Tasmania’s seas out into the open,” said Bob Brown.

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Media release – Tasmanian Alliance for Marine Protection, 27 September 2021

Barnett and Duniam engagement is a political Sleight of hand

The ministers’ promise to explore unproven deep-ocean technology while doing nothing to stop the salmon industry pouring thousands of tonnes of untreated sewage into coastal waters is nothing more than window dressing for a toxic industry.

It’s yet another failed attempt at sleight of hand – asking Tasmanians to look out over the horizon when the cause of the smell is right under their noses.

When industry and government relinquish and rehabilitate the disastrous coastal salmon leases, Tasmanians might begin to believe honest intent.

Until then, pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into an embryonic, unproven technology  to support a discredited industry is no more than cynical political theatre.