Community Groups Abandon ‘Sham Consultations’ on Salmon Plan

Transcript of media conference with Peter George, Neighbours of Fish Farming; Alistair Allan, Bob Brown Foundation; Peter McGlone: Tasmanian Conservation Trust; Trish Baily: Tasman Peninsula Marine Protection; Gerard Castles, Killora Community Assn; Mick Lawrence, Surfrider Foundation Tasmania; and Sheenagh Neill, Marine Protection Tasmania, Parliament Lawns, Hobart, 14 December 2022.

Peter George

This is a group of organisations, both environmental and community groups who’ve been brought together because of our deep concern for what’s going to be happening to our waterways if the government and the salmon industry get their way. The salmon industry plan is not a plan at all. There’s no detail, it is basically handing over waterways to the salmon barons to do what they want with. And this is our Tasmanian marine heritage. It doesn’t belong to the multinational companies that are going to exploit our waterways. We have been consulted to death over the last three years. As organisations we have taken part in workshops, we’ve taken part in meeting ministers, we have submitted to every single consultation. And we recognise now that this is absolutely a totally sham process. And we will have no more to do with it.

Journalist – unidentified

Have they met you a little, met some of your recommendations but not enough? Or is it the fact that essentially –

Peter George

Neither the government nor the salmon industry have taken any notice of us at all. What they’ve done is they put in place a process which is designed to ignore community, designed to ignore environmental concerns, and to put profits into multinational salmon companies that will take their profits overseas, leaving behind the damage that they’ve done to our waterways. There’s absolutely no concessions to community concerns whatsoever from this government. And that was absolutely proved when Jeremy Rockliff met behind closed doors at the Liberal Party fundraiser and made promises to the salmon barons that they would get what they want. Despite the fact he was supposed to be involved and the government was involved in community consultations at the time, when the salmon barons were paying thousands of dollars for the privilege of having a quiet word and supper with the Premier.

Journalist – unidentified

Have you met with the Premier?

Peter George

We have met with almost every politician of any colour since the since this entire plan to expand the salmon industry was first launched. We’ve talked to politicians, we’ve been to workshops, we’ve made submissions, and we have been ignored. Mr. Rockliff, along with Guy Barnett, along with Jo Palmer, along with all the ministers have totally ignored community concerns.

Gerard Castles

Gerard Castles, Killora Community Association, Bruny Island.

Journalist – unidentified

What are your main concerns?

Gerard Castles

Our concern is that this consultation process is actually a sham, a farce. And worse than that it’s a lie. We’ve been told through this consultation process that the government’s seeking community input. And yet we know that Jeremy Rockliff has promised the salmon industry in private Liberal fundraising dinners whatever they want in terms of expansion. So this whole process is a lie, a farce and a sham. And I don’t see any point in being any further part of it.

Journalist – unidentified

Is there one or two particular things that you’ve asked for?

Gerard Castles

Yes, we want salmon farms out of shallow water leases, we want salmon farming onshore, and we want transparent governance. And none of that has actually been delivered by what the government’s putting up with this 10 year plan.

Trish Baily

My name is Trish Baily, I’m with Tasman Peninsula Marine Protection. I’ve got many concerns like everyone else is expressing. But basically when you look at this draft salmon plan, it’s a tiny document. It’s about 19 pages. When you take away all the full page photographs and the half page photographs and the annotations at the end it basically comes down to nine and a half pages of script, which says absolutely nothing. And this is a document of immense importance for the future of salmon.

So it says nothing and it’s just patting us on the back. They talk about public consultation and there has been no proper public consultation where they have listened to. So we’re just extremely disappointed. If you took that document to a university or as if it was a university paper for instance and it was for an exam they would fail because they haven’t answered, they haven’t communicated. They haven’t answered the questions that they put in the discussion paper for the 10 year salmon plan. It’s it is letting down all of Tasmania.

Journalist – unidentified

Your group has obviously done a lot of campaigning and advocacy on this and yet very strongly given the amount of effort you guys are putting here. But how does it feel that your concerns haven’t really been listened to?

Trish Baily

Well we just feel completely and utterly let down. You know we all have jobs, many of us are OAFS actually – oldies against farmed salmon – and we have better things to do with our lives we but we care deeply about our environment. This industry does not belong in our shallow waterways, it’s affecting communities and there needs to be attention paid to that by the government.

Journalist – unidentified

Do you think your views are shared by most people on the Tasman peninsula regarding the expansion?

Trish Baily

Yes, I feel that across the peninsula people are increasingly upset about the expansion of the salmon industry, especially in the communities where they are living close to where the salmon pens are where they subjected to the constant noise and light pollution and the blocking off of the waterways. So it’s really hard to be a recreational boater now to get out of say Parsons Bay near Nubeena. The constant noise and activity on the at these sites is really affecting the health of people actually. Thank you.

Peter McGlone

Peter McGlone, Tasmania Conservation Trust. Now there’s been some suggestions that the government might have given way to some of our concerns. But at the outset of the process, Mr Barnett gave commitments about limiting the overall size of the salmon industry. And he also gave a commitment about moving farms offshore and onto land. Now, these commitments have not turned up in the final document, although some people might think they have. There is no wording in there about limiting the size of the industry. The only reference to moving on to land is about hatcheries.

And in terms of moving farm in terms of moving to offshore areas, there’s a statement that says if the industry wants to do it, it can move offshore, but there’s no commitment that that might be in addition to existing inshore salmon farms. And in fact, this fear was was reinforced at the public meeting in Hobart where, in response to a question the department said, we expect there to be an increasing size of farms in Tasmania, an increasing number of farms in Tasmania. Now the minister has just given up on those commitments.

Over the last year, people have talked about consultations after consultations, I’ve actually counted 17 different documents that the government has released about salmon since September last year. Now that’s an absolute avalanche of information. And guess what, none of it addresses our concerns about moving the farms out of inshore waters, none of it. It’s an absolute snowstorm. Now, we’ve taken on Barnett about those commitments that he made early on, and he just refuses to answer any questions. I liken Minister Barnett and Minister Palmer to having a conversation with a robo-call. The minister just keeps talking at you and repeating the same messages just like a robo-call. And you just keep asking questions and saying ‘I don’t understand I have these concerns’. And the robo-call just keeps talking back to you repeating the same process and message. Now these robo-call consultations have got to stop.

Sheenagh Neill

I’m Sheenagh Neill from Marine Protection Tasmania. We represent communities on the east coast, including Tasman Peninsula, Eaglehawk Bay area, which is where I come from. And I’d like to say to you that we’re calling on the government to actually introduce the citizens jury. Why? Because in Victoria, they actually introduced the citizen jury into the health department to look into what’s going on. And they found that with the citizens jury, there was integrity around the consultation. There is no integrity around here. How many submissions do people have to make before they get heard? In a citizens jury, they do get listened to, it’s independent, and Joe Palmer could actually rest on her laurels. Instead, she chooses to ignore community and continue on with the salmon barons, it’s not good enough.

A citizens jury is an independent committee formed by educated people, scientists and other independents and it actually looks at all of the intake. So it looks at all of the people who are have a stocktake or a take in this area and listens to them, and then makes a judgement based on good science. At the moment, we’ve got consultation, which is a farce, it’s the lowest level it’s not world class.

Tasmanian Times

Do you think your citizens jury would address some of these social licence issues which appear to be a perennial problem for extractive industries in Tasmania?

Sheenagh Neill

In the Victorian Health Department, they have found that it has been extremely successful and well received by the community. I think that that rests on its laurels. So it’s time this government actually started doing something that was innovative to satisfy community who are continually calling out for change.

Alistair Allan

Alistair Allan, I’m from the Bob Brown Foundation. The people you see behind me today is a collection of the views of Tasmania. This is not a group based here in Hobart; we have people from the Tasman Peninsula, Bruny, the north-west. This is representative of the feelings of the Tasmanian community that has been completely ignored by the government.

Journalist – unidentified

What do you think people want?

Alistair Allan

I think what people want to see is if you make a submission, saying that I have genuine concerns about an issue you want to see that reflected back in the government’s plans. And that’s not happening. What the government is doing is ignoring the voices of hundreds and hundreds of submissions pointing out the litany of issues with the salmon industry, and instead, having a private dinner with them and guaranteeing them whatever they want. It’s not good enough, and the community has had enough. Thank you.