Media release – Bob Brown Foundation, 31 March 2025
Albanese’s new salmon law challenged in Federal Court – Bob Brown Foundation files challenge in Hobart
Bob Brown Foundation has today made application to the Federal Court to challenge the Labor/Liberal rushed legislation exempting industrial fish farms from an environment law.
“Our barristers will argue that Albanese’s carve-out for polluting salmon farms does not apply to Macquarie Harbour,” said Alistair Allan, Antarctic and Marine campaigner at Bob Brown Foundation.
“We are also asking the court to rule that, after 16 months delay, the Minister for Environment Tanya Plibersek must make a decision regarding the original approval of fish farming in Macquarie Harbour.”
The foundation points to a clause in last week’s amendment to the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act requiring that ‘the way in which the action (ie the fish farming) is being taken has been ongoing or recurring for at least 5 years’. It has told the court that company operations have changed significantly over the last 5 years, including joint ventures to address environmental damage and making large changes in production levels and the amount of feed used. There have also been major changes and requirements under their environmental licences.
“This rushed bill was intended to protect the three foreign-owned corporations from environmental protections for the Maugean skate, which is on the edge of extinction, and to try to win Labor the seat of Braddon,” said Alistair Allan.
“Albanese’s thinking that the best response to impending extinction is to back the very industry causing it is outrageous. Along with Peter Dutton, his rushing the law change has made it vulnerable to challenge.”
“We are telling the court that this industry has, in fact, not been exempted from the EPBC and that the minister should no longer delay her decision on the requests for her to reconsider and halt the Macquarie Harbour fiasco.
“The science shows that the fish farms are having a catastrophic impact on the Maugean skate. Freedom of Information documents released just before the new amendment came into effect show that the government and minister were both briefed that the likely outcome of our request for reconsideration would be that fish farms in Macquarie Harbour must be reassessed by her. Her refusal has now landed the government in the Federal Court.”
“Our campaign to save the ancient and unique Maugean skate is far from over,” said Alistair Allan.
Ben Marshall
March 31, 2025 at 16:47
Just to give this context, the Labor Party, and pretty much everyone else, knew the EPBC Act was broken and that it is ‘not fit for purpose’ in protecting the environment or providing guardrails for corporate and government developments. The Samuels Report back in 2021 laid out the way to fix it, and Labor promised to do so.
Labor lied. And now its politicians are weakening the existing EPBC to the point where it’s meaningless – which is just what corporate Australia and the Coalition want. The Bob Brown Foundation is right to fight the Albanese government’s appalling abrogation of its promises, including its integrity and its basic diligence to protect the environment and local economies that depend on a healthy local environment.
Here’s the Minister’s media release from 2022:
“Australia’s environment laws are broken.
“Professor Graeme Samuel’s 2019 review into the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act found that “the EPBC Act is outdated and requires fundamental reform… Australians do not trust that the Act is delivering for the environment, for business or for the community”.
“Nature is being destroyed. Businesses are waiting too long for decisions. That’s bad for everyone. Things have to change.
“Labor is today delivering on our promise by responding to Professor Samuel’s review and announcing our Nature Positive Plan: better for the environment, better for business.
“We want an economy that is nature positive – to halt decline and repair nature.
“We will build our legislation on three basic principles: clear national standards of environmental protection, improving and speeding up decisions, and building trust and integrity.
“Our Nature Positive Plan will be better for the environment by delivering:
• Stronger laws designed to repair nature, to protect precious plants, animals and places. For the first time, our laws will introduce standards that decisions must meet. Standards describe the environmental outcomes we want to achieve. This will ensure decisions made will protect our threatened species and ecosystems.
• A new Environment Protection Agency to make development decisions and properly enforce them.
“Our Nature Positive Plan will be better for business by delivering:
• More certainty – saving time and money with faster, clearer decisions about developments including housing and energy. Regional plans will identify the areas we want to protect, areas for fast-tracked development and where development can proceed with caution.
• Less red tape – easier paperwork and less duplication. Streamlining and consolidating the project assessment process.
“Our Nature Positive Plan is a win-win: a win for the environment and a win for business.
“I look forward to working with environment, business, community and First Nations groups to deliver it.
“Our reforms are seeking to turn the tide in this country – from nature destruction to nature repair.
“And they match what we’ve already begun in our first six months in office.
“A stronger emissions reduction target, with a clear path to net zero.
“A target of zero new extinctions on this continent.
“A commitment to protecting thirty percent of Australia’s land and oceans by 2030.
“A new nature repair market.
“Reducing waste and building an economy focused on recycling, re-use and repair.
“Campaigning on the world stage, to protect our oceans, to support the Pacific, and to reduce plastic waste.
“And $1.8 billion in the recent Budget –
• to protect the Great Barrier Reef
• to save our native species
• to employ 1,000 new Landcare Rangers.
• to support new Indigenous Protected Areas
• to fund the Environmental Defenders Office, for the first time in nine years
• And to clean up our urban rivers and waterways.
“The legislation will be released as an exposure draft prior to being introduced into the Parliament before the end of 2023.
“The Government’s full response to the Samuel Review can be found here: EPBC Act reform – DCCEEW”