A Mother’s Fight – From Rotten Salmon to Political Action

Before last summer, I had little interest in politics. I knew in an abstract way that decisions made in parliament shape our lives, but I was focussed on things closer to home – like raising my little girl as best I could as a single mother while working two jobs to afford our one-bedroom rental.

But last summer, everything changed.

Oily globs of decomposing salmon from nearby fish farms smothered our beach at Verona Sands. Dogs that ate the stuff became sick. We couldn’t walk on the sand or go for a swim without the stench of rotten fish following us home. Something had happened on our beach – something wrong – but there was no information or direction from authorities.

Weeks later, we learned these globs were the remnants of over a million dead salmon; that unknown quantities of antibiotics were being poured into our waterways and that diseased fish were being sold in supermarkets across the country.

The environmental catastrophe of last summer’s so-called “mass mortality event” was bad enough.

What shocked me to my core was the eagerness with which both Labor and Liberal politicians lined up to take selfies with packages of salmon outside supermarkets, becoming social media influencers for the foreign-owned companies that had caused this disaster on our beach.

Not one of these politicians visited Verona Sands, or any of the other communities around the D’Entrecasteaux Channel affected by the disaster. None of them called for an inquiry into what had happened, or how to stop it happening again. Instead, we heard that even more open net salmon farm leases were set to be approved in Storm Bay and Bass Strait.

I realised then that decisions were being made in our parliament that directly impacted my life, and the lives of my family and friends.

Even worse, the people we had elected to represent us cared more about protecting the financial interests of multinational companies than about our health, our environment, our home.

What happened last summer was symptomatic of a broken system of governance here in Tasmania. In the midst of a national cost of living crisis, we are now facing a staggering $13 billion state debt, a haemorrhaging health system, ballooning social housing waitlists and some of the worst education outcomes in the country.

Despite all this, both major parties are determined to ram a roofed, $1.86 billion stadium at Macquarie Point through parliament, aborting their own promised community consultation process, and dismissing the overwhelming majority of Tasmanians who do not want it. Neither party has any clear plan for how to turn this sinking ship of state around.

There are no easy fixes to these problems.

But the advice of experts like independent economist Saul Eslake is clear: if we want more qualified professionals, more teachers, doctors, nurses and tradies to scale up our economy and lift us out of debt, we need to invest in quality education.

As an educator, I’ve worked in some of the most prestigious universities in the world. I have also taught in some of the most economically disadvantaged areas of the United States.

I’ve experienced first-hand the transformative power of education on individuals and communities.

We know that students who succeed at school live longer, happier, healthier lives, and that a more highly skilled, more educated workforce is the key to a more productive economy.

But Tasmania’s public education system is under serious pressure right now, with declining adult literacy rates, the lowest Year 12 retention rates in the country, and worsening levels of teacher burnout. This is not a failure of people – it is a failure of policy, resourcing, and imagination.

The research has already been done on what isn’t working in our education system, the independent reports tell us exactly what’s needed to fix it.

We don’t need another review: we need action. We need a coordinated, fully funded implementation plan based on existing recommendations, that provides a future-focused, equitable education system that invests in children, communities and educators – not just buildings and bureaucracy.

Sadly, the more taxpayer money that must be spent on servicing state debt, the less we have available to put into government services like public education. But the true economic and social cost of failing to invest in education is incalculable.

I want my little girl, and every child in our community, to have access to high-quality education close to home, starting from early childhood. I want her to be able to swim at her local beach.

And I want her to know that the people who sit in our parliament are people of empathy, integrity and intelligence, who value her wellbeing above all other things.

That’s why I’m standing as an independent alongside Peter George in Franklin this election.

Dr Rayne Allinson is a historian, writer, educator and is standing as one of six independent support candidates alongside Peter George in the division of Franklin.

Tasmanian Times (TT) is a community-based news and current affairs service covering the island state of Tasmania. It exists to provide a diverse view of Tasmanian issues. TT creates and supports independent media content utilising the best of modern technologies and tried-and-true practices of public-interest journalism.

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