Transcript of media conference with Eloise Carr, Director, The Australia Institute Tasmania; Jess Coughlan, Campaigner, Neighbours of Fish Farms; Alistair Allan, Antarctic and Marine Campaigner, Bob Brown Foundation, Hobart, 14 February 2024.
The letter referred to is reproduced below the transcript.
Eloise Carr
The Australia Institute and 13 other organisations have written to UNESCO and the IUCN, alerting them to the inadequate response by the Australian Government to the plight of the Maugean skate.
We’ve asked for a monitoring mission to be sent to Tasmanian in the second half of this year, and we’ve also addressed some of the misinformation that the industry and some politicians are spreading about the recovery of the skate and the threat to the skate. The threat of extinction remains imminent.
Depleted oxygen levels is the key threat, and this is due to fish farming in Macquarie Harbour. This has recently been reconfirmed by the Australian Environment Department in invite in advice to the minister in documents released in January this year.
Tasmanian Times
Those organisations, are they all Australian organisations that have joined with you in this?
Eloise Carr
Yes, there’s, as I said, there’s a total of 14, several local groups from the north and the south east of the country, of the state, as well as national environmental NGOs, including the Australian Conservation Foundation, Australian Marine Conservation Society, Humane Society International. And then there’s a bunch of statewide organisations as well who’ve signed on to the letter. Bob Brown Foundation and Neighbors of Fish Farms have also signed on to the letter.
Tasmanian Times
Is this the first time that UNESCO has been asked to intervene in this issue?
Eloise Carr
No, we wrote to UNESCO and the IUCN in April 2024 and since then they wrote to the Australian Government. Now we know the Australian Government has responded to UNESCO about our concerns, but they are refusing to publish their response. We have repeatedly asked for that response to be made public, and we The Australia Institute, put in a Freedom of Information request last year.
It was recently refused, and there was no substantiated evidence for the grounds for the refusal of that freedom of information request. Now we are talking about the extinction of a species of recognised World Heritage value. This is clearly a matter of public interest, and the World Heritage Convention obliges the Australian Government to keep the public broadly informed of threats to the World Heritage values, and what the government is doing to address those threats.
Tasmanian Times
What could the Australian Government be saying to UNESCO that’s not suitable to be revealed to the Australian public?
Eloise Carr
That is a really good question. I would like to know what on earth. Australians deserve to know. What on earth could the Australian government have to say to UNESCO that it can’t say to Australians?
Alistair Allan
I think you nailed that. Alison, I don’t really think much ahead. Do you have anything
Jess Coughlan
I will add that Rex Patrick, South Australian former senator, did put in an FOI request for documentation and correspondence between the department and Tanya Plibersek’s office with regard to her decision on the up-listing of the skate.
In that correspondence there are definitive statements from the scientists saying that, once again, they reiterate that the threat to the Maugean skate is catastrophic, and it is coming from the salmon farming impacts on Macquarie Harbour.
The lowered dissolved levels of dissolved oxygen and the increase of salmon farming since 2012 are inextricably linked, and that is the major cause of the decline in the Maugean skate’s numbers. If action is not taken adequately and swiftly, there is the real risk of extinction of the species within 27 years.
Tasmanian Times
We are in a federal election cycle admitting this current Labor government remains absolutely committed to to doing nothing until the federal election is out of the way?
Jess Coughlan
Oh, I think it’s absolutely the opposite. I think all all Australians should be deeply, deeply concerned that the Labor Government has committed $21 million of taxpayers’ money to essentially put the salmon in Macquarie Harbour on life support and subsidise three foreign owned companies that have not paid tax in the last four years. They have not paid corporate tax, yet they are being subsidised by Australian taxpayers in order to continue their polluting practices while they continue to push an animal closer to the brink of extinction.
Alistair Allan
The only thing I’d add to that is that the disappointment in federal Labor is for a government that came in with a mandate of no new extinctions to not only prop up the salmon industry, as Jess has mentioned, with huge taxpayer handouts, but to then defend this industry from UNESCO in a World Heritage Area, and not even allow Australians to see what they’re saying to UNESCO about this when they promised no new extinctions on their watch. It’s incredibly disappointing from federal Labor.
Tasmanian Times
I’ve seen a few people around here with Save The Maugean Skate T-shirts and little badges. And historically, it’s been difficult to try to save animals that are not cute and fluffy. Now, as a campaigner, as Marine Campaigner for the BBF, how do you think your Save The Maugean Skate campaign is going?
Alistair Allan
I think people connect with the Maugean skate because it’s one of one of a kind. It’s one of the last of its species. It is only found in Macquarie Harbour It’s unique. It is emblematic of the crisis that faces wildlife around the world, whether it be, rhinos going extinct, or tigers, whatever the animal is, industries, especially ones like the salmon industry here in Tasmania, push unique and amazing animals to extinction. and our governments do nothing in the face of that. They allow these companies to destroy an ecosystem, to make an animal disappear from the face of the earth forever.
And I think people don’t want to see that. They don’t care, Australians don’t care about the numbers and profits of the salmon industry. What they do care about is that the government protects what makes Australian wildlife unique and keeps an animal that’s been on the planet for millions of years here for more generations to come.
Other signatories to the letter to UNESCO, the World Heritage Centre and the International Union for Conservation of Nature stated:
“Tasmanians are sick and tired of this foreign-owned industry ruining their precious waterways. They don’t even pay their fair share of tax. Thousands of locals have demonstrated this summer, turning up to protests and meetings around the state in areas proposed for salmon expansion – there’s another public meeting about it in Burnie this Sunday,” said Cass Wright, President, NWTAS for Clean Oceans.
“The Australian Government, facing an election soon, are doing all they can to close this issue down. We won’t be silenced about this and other problems arising from of out-of-control salmon farming,” said Dr Ian Sale, Secretary, Friends of the Bays.
“A living dinosaur is on the absolute brink of extinction, with its fate in the hands of leaders elected by the Australian public – a public that has a right to know how its irreplaceable natural values are going to be protected. The world is watching,” said Dr Leonardo Guida, shark scientist at the Australian Marine Conservation Society.
“The Australian Government’s inaction not only threatens the ancient Maugean skate and the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area – it also threatens the Tasmanian brand and those businesses and jobs reliant on it,” said Kelly Roebuck, Vice Chair, Environment Tasmania.
“The Business Alliance for the Maugean skate has made it clear to the Federal Environment Minister that allowing the potential extinction of the ‘thylacine of the sea’ could have devastating impacts. Tasmanians especially deserve to know how the Government is responding.”
Media release – Nick McKim, Greens Senator for Tasmania, 14 February,2025
Federal Government must release its response to UNESCO over Maugean skate
The Greens are calling on the Albanese Government to immediately release its response to UNESCO regarding the endangered Maugean skate.
UNESCO has raised concerns with the Federal government about the risks to the Maugean Skate, yet despite repeated requests the government has refused to make its response public.
A Freedom of Information request for the document was also denied, with no valid justification provided.
“What is the government trying to hide?” Greens Senator for Tasmania Nick McKim said.
“No doubt the government is embarrassed by its response to UNESCO, but people have the right to know how their Government is responding to the likely extinction of a species and the impact of industrial salmon farming on a World Heritage property.”
“The Government’s own environment department has confirmed that reduced oxygen levels in Macquarie Harbour – driven by salmon farming – are the key threat to the Maugean skate’s survival.”
“Australia has obligations under the World Heritage Convention to keep the public informed about threats to world heritage areas, yet the Government is refusing to release this critical information.”
“The Maugean skate is on the brink, and the Government should be taking every possible step to save it.”
“Instead, they are prioritising the profits of foreign-owned fish farming corporations over transparency and action.”
“The world is watching. The Government must release its response to UNESCO and act to stop the extinction of this ancient species.”
