Janie Finlay MP, Shadow Minister for Primary Industries and Water, 7 February 2024

Tasmanian Labor supports Tasmanian salmon industry

Tasmanian Labor has made a submission to the Federal Government’s review of salmon farming, reiterating our strong support for the state’s salmon industry.

We believe that salmon farming is vitally important to Tasmania and to the communities on the west coast – and we are confident that the industry, and the jobs it creates, can coexist with the Maugean skate in Macquarie Harbour.

It is clear that there are many factors at play when it comes to the skate population and I remain confident this review will shine a light on this.

The industry has acted quickly and committed $6 million for a major oxygenation project in Macquarie Harbour in a determined effort to protect the skate – and adheres to strict environmental standards.

Our submission calls for the social impacts of the decision on the west coast community to be considered alongside the science, with time allowed for the effectiveness of the oxygenation project to take effect.

Tasmanian Labor backs the salmon industry and we look forward to working with the sector and community to ensure it continues to be a pillar of our regional communities and our Tasmanian economy.

Media release – Roger Jaensch, Minister for Environment and Climate Change, 8 February 2024

Rockliff Liberal Government position clear: new decision on Macquarie Harbour salmon not needed

The Rockliff Liberal Government has made its submission into the Albanese Government’s public consultation process relating to requests to reconsider a 2012 decision to allow marine farming expansion in Macquarie Harbour.

Federal Minister for the Environment and Water, Tanya Plibersek is currently the decision maker on whether to allow the salmon industry to continue in the harbour.

Minister for Environment and Climate Change, Roger Jaensch, said the Rockliff Liberal Government’s position is absolutely clear – the requests to reconsider the 2012 decision have no sound basis, and no change to the original decision is required.

“There is no new substantial information since the original decision was made, and no change in circumstances that were not foreseen at the time of the first decision,” Minister Jaensch said.

”Our submission clearly demonstrates that current actions to manage, monitor and regulate marine farming activities in Macquarie Harbour are effective.

“Since the 2012 decision, regulation of marine farming in has been continuously evolving and a range of measures are in place and underway to protect the environmental values and the ecological character of Macquarie Harbour, including the endangered Maugean skate.”

These measures have included:

  • Restrictions on the biomass of salmon and nitrogen (in fish feed) inputs to the harbour;
  • Restrictions on recreational and commercial gillnetting in the harbour;
  • New environmental standards for marine finfish farming;
  • Industry and research investment in remediation of dissolved oxygen levels in the harbour;
  • A new Conservation Action Plan for the Maugean skate; and
  • Investing $2.1 million into a captive breeding program in partnership with the University of Tasmania’s Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies.

Minister Jaensch called on the Federal Environment Minister to consider the evidence of the Tasmanian Government’s submission in a timely manner and provide certainty to the industry, and the west coast community, as soon as possible.

“Our position is clear, there is now a comprehensive Conservation Action Plan being implemented to ensure the survival of the Maugean skate, and a comprehensive environmental management framework which is ensuring sustainable salmon farming operations in the harbour,” Minister Jaensch said.

“In November last year, Minister Plibersek wrote to us saying she would support a way forward for sustainable salmon industry in the harbour.

“Our submission shows how that is being achieved, right now and into the future, and we encourage Minister Plibersek to consider the evidence and support the current management approach.

“The alternative would have devastating ramifications for Tasmania’s salmon industry and flow-on effects for the broader West Coast community, including local schools and health services.

“Importantly, it would also set a chilling sovereign risk precedent for all other resource-based industries across regional and rural Australia which rely on past federal environmental decisions for their licence to operate and may now be open to retrospective reviews.”

The Rockliff Liberal Government will continue its long-term plan to deliver on the things that matter to Tasmanians and their families, like standing up for our sustainable primary industries as well as the unique natural environments in which they operate – not sacrificing either for the sake of the other.

A copy of the Tasmanian Government’s submission to can be found here: www.nre.tas.gov.au/about-the-department/macquarie-harbour-marine-farming-expansion-epbc-submission.

Media release – Bob Brown Foundation, 8 February 2024

Maugean Skate “has enough protection” to go extinct

Today’s statement by the Tasmanian Government that the Maugean skate “has enough protection” is as laughable as it is appalling. The reality is that the Tasmanian Government has done absolutely nothing to protect the skate from extinction caused by industrial fish farms in Macquarie Harbour.

Premier Rockliff and the Tasmanian Government must act immediately to ensure that the Maugean skate is protected.

“The Maugean skate has been pushed to the edge of extinction by fish farms and the Tasmanian Government’s carte blanche attitude to regulating the industry. Yet somehow they claim that the Maugean skate has ‘enough protection.’  This is a contradiction of the highest order,” said Alistair Allan, Antarctic and Marine campaigner at Bob Brown Foundation.

“The Tasmanian Government’s claim that there is no new information regarding the Maugean skate is simply not true and they know it. They know full well that a decline in population by 47%, along with an emergency report from the Institute of Antarctic and Marine Sciences and federal conservation advice listing fish farms as catastrophic to the Maugean skate , is new information that wasn’t available at the time of the initial decision regarding fish farms in Macquarie Harbour.”

“The Tasmanian government also knows full well that it was not foreseen that fish farms would impact the Maugean skate as the initial decision specifically required that fish farms may not impact the species. Well, they have, and complete culpability is at the feet of the fish farm companies and the Tasmanian Government for breaching this requirement. Premier Rockliff must take the entire Australian public as a bunch of fools if he thinks that people will believe that the Maugean skate is being protected.”

“Premier Rockliff must remove fish farms from Macquarie Harbour immediately. If the Maugean skate goes extinct, no one will look back and think that his government did all they could to stop it. Instead they will see that his government was responsible for the first extinction due to aquaculture anywhere in the world,” said Alistair Allan.

Media release – Neighbours of Fish Farming, 8 February 2024

Late and lacking evidence: Rockllff submission on Maugean skate

The Rockliff government has typically failed to heed the science, the advice of scientists and the plain evidence of a failing waterway in refusing to even consider reducing or eliminating salmon feedlots in Macquarie Harbour and taking obvious steps to avoid the extinction of the Maugean skate.

To all appearances, the environment minister, Roger Jaensch’s response to a Federal government inquiry into an original decision to permit industry expansion in the waterway has been written by the tax-avoiding foreign-owned salmon companies themselves.

“In arguing there is “no sound basis” to reconsider the original expansion, Mr Jaensch simply denies the overwhelming evidence of scientists advising the Federal Government and IMAS scientists who first raised the warning flag,” says Peter George, president of NOFF.

“His statement is littered with ludicrous, extreme and hollow phrases like ‘devastating ramifications’, ‘chilling sovereign risk precedent’ and – worst of all – lies like ‘there is now a comprehensive Conservation Action Plan being implemented to ensure the survival of the Maugean skate.’”

“The sheer denial of the truth marks this statement out as having been penned for the environment minister by the industry’s own lobbyist.

The fact that the submission to Federal Environment minister, Tanya Plibersek, was only released, undated, today seems to reveal the government even failed to meet the February 2 deadline despite months of notice.

Media release – Australian Marine Conservation Society and Humane Society International Australia, 8 February 2024

Salmon must go from Macquarie Harbour to save Maugean skate, says AMCS-HSI submission

Salmon must be removed from Macquarie Harbour for the endangered Maugean skate to have any chance of survival, the Australian Marine Conservation Society (AMCS) and Humane Society International Australia (HSI Australia) said in their submission to federal environment minister’s Tanya Plibersek’s review of the issue.

The review is a critical step towards addressing the impact of salmon farming on the endangered Maugean skate, especially after the Tasmanian Environment Protection Authority in November renewed the Macquarie Harbour salmon farming licences for two years. Any delays in removing salmon from the harbour contradicts the independent advice from the Threatened Species Scientific Committee to the federal environment department, which said the key threat to the skate was poor water quality in Macquarie Harbour, primarily caused by fish farming.

The advice recommended to “eliminate or significantly reduce the impacts of salmonid aquaculture on dissolved oxygen concentrations” before this summer, which is rapidly coming to an end.

AMCS Shark Conservation Lead Dr Leonardo Guida said: “Federal environment minister Tanya Plibersek must take action and end salmon farming in Macquarie Harbour, and address the root cause to both save the skate and provide resilience to a World Heritage Area. What use are our nature laws, the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act, if they don’t have the teeth to do exactly what the title of the act says? The situation has changed dramatically for the Maugean skate since the decision was made to allow salmon farming in Macquarie Harbour in 2012.

“Intensive salmon farming has caused oxygen levels to plummet in the Maugean skate’s only home, Macquarie Harbour,[1] pushing the skate to the verge of extinction with fears fewer than 1000 remain.[2] Since December two adults have died in the captive breeding program, highlighting the urgency to restore the health and resilience of the harbour.

“The federal environment department’s independent scientific advice clearly identified the reduction of salmon biomass to take place ahead of this summer.

“Tasmania’s famed reputation for clean and green produce will be forever tarnished if the skate becomes extinct. This could be the first time aquaculture has been the primary cause and directly driven the extinction of a marine fish.”

The AMCS-HSI Australia submission states: “This submission has outlined how the Particular Manner Notice attached to the Original Decision relied on Macquarie Harbour finfish farms’ adherence to (now outdated) Tasmanian regulatory processes which have failed to prevent significant adverse impacts arising from the Action on the Maugean skate and the TWWHA [Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area].”

The submission continues: “The submission has provided scientific evidence that so-called ‘adaptive management’ responses taken by Tasmanian regulators and finfish farms to date have been ineffective in improving the benthic and deep-water environment in Macquarie Harbour or in ensuring the ongoing survival of the remaining Maugean skate population. Consequently, there is a clear and present danger that the Maugean skate will become extinct in the wild within 10 years.”

HSI Australia Head of Campaigns, Nicola Beynon, said: “This is an extinction emergency. The Maugean skate must be listed as ‘Critically Endangered’ and given every chance to survive.

“Tasmania is home to Australia’s most infamous extinction, that of the thylacine or Tasmanian tiger. Does the state really want another extinction caused by human activity?”