Media release – Jo Palmer, Minister for Primary Industries and Water, 16 August 2022
Government response to Legislative Council Finfish Inquiry report
Tasmania’s salmon industry continues to be one of the state’s success stories and the Tasmanian Government is a proud supporter of it.Since the industry began in the 1980s, Tasmanian companies have been pioneers in fish farming, animal health, technology, and environmental improvement to match our unique local conditions.
With a production value of more than $1 billion in 2020-21, Tasmanian salmon is Australia’s largest aquaculture industry, and it is important we get the balance right between the regulatory environment and supporting the industry to grow sustainably.
The Legislative Council Finfish Inquiry report released in May is an important body of work and the Government acknowledges the considerable time and effort of the Legislative Council members, and the many community and industry submissions.
The Government has carefully considered the report’s recommendations and supports or supports in principle most of the 68 recommendations.
Over the past three years, significant progress has already been made on many of the issues the inquiry and subsequent recommendations identified.
A progress report released in 2021 detailed the substantial achievements made against the many sustainability initiatives outlined in the Sustainable Industry Growth Plan for the Salmon Industry.
At that same time, our Government opened consultation on the discussion paper for a new 10- Year Salmon Plan.
The new plan will set a vision for what a modern, sustainable and innovative Tasmanian aquaculture industry, dominated by salmon, can be in 2033 and what steps are required to achieve that vision.
With the added information of the Inquiry report and the Government’s response, the consultation period will be extended until August 31. Importantly, those who have already provided a response will be able to update their submission.
Through the new 10-Year Salmon Plan, the Government aims to further establish Tasmania’s place as a leader in sustainable aquaculture that produces the food and ocean products that Tasmanians and the rest of the world values, and which Tasmanians can continue to be proud of.
To read the Discussion Paper or to make a submission, go to www.nre.tas.gov.au/salmonplan.
Media release – TAMP, August 15 2022
COOKE AQUACULTURE buy TASSAL
This is a dark day for Tasmanians .
“This company is worse than TASSAL with a poor environmental record.”
TASSAL salmon has now sold out to an overseas owner with a chequered environmental history, Cooke Aquaculture.
Cooke Aquaculture has a terrible record with the environmental, with animal welfare and workplace safety issues. They have been fined almost US$13 million since 2000 for violations of American laws.
Faced by increasing global opposition to their practices—in which fish faeces, excess feed, chemicals, detergents and antibiotics are spewed directly into open waters—this multinational is on the hunt for expansion opportunities. They seek places where regulation is lax, environmental and decision-making transparency is weak and, vitally, where governments can be bought by promises of jobs or by potentially less scrupulous means.
So Tasmania with its weakest regulations and governance over its salmon industry makes us attractive to this multinational company. We have a government that panders to industry and refuses to listen to community.
Tasmania is attractive to the international salmon behemoths as they seek to expand their global footprint, claiming to “feed the world”.
Our Government, charmed by dollars, is complicit in selling off our low-cost waterways to these big companies with dollars. These are our public waterways and in doing so they are green-lighting and promoting rampant growth and the continued destruction of our waterways, coastlines and soul-places. It has to stop.
It is bitterly ironic that as Canada is phasing out open sea-pen salmon farming by 2025, Tasmania, like some third-world country, is set to expand this discredited and controversial form of aquaculture with Cooke Aquaculture.
How will Tasmania with its weak laws and regulations respond to this company’s history of environmental breaches?.
My message to all Tasmanians: If you’ve got a shack, if you live on the coast, if you like going to the beach, surfing or fishing, get ready for the worst.
Adding to insult is that today the Legislative Council report into Fin-Fish farming is being read in our parliament today. This reading will get lip-service from our government, with global statements that do not consider any of the recommendations or findings. They will fail to provide adequate timelines to move to a sustainable option of onshore salmon farming. We now have the Blue Economy CRC funded by multinational companies.
We don’t want motherhood statements. We have been waiting since 1996 for action on the fouling of our shallow waterways. The Government should be using this opportunity to plan to move all open salmon pens to onshore, as is being explored elsewhere. Stop pandering to an industry with poor returns and refusing to act n the interest of our Tasmanian coastal waterways.
Media release – Dr Rosalie Woodruff MP, Greens Environment and Biodiversity spokesperson, 16 August 2022
Tassal Takeover a Tasmanian Tragedy
Tasmania’s fragile, unique marine waters are officially dominated by the profit imperative of foreign owned mega corporations. The purchase of Tassal by Canadian seafood giant, Cooke is another tragedy for Tasmania’s environment, and ultimately for Tassal’s workers.
Cooke is an atrocious corporate citizen that has been found guilty and fined for:
– Fish farm collapse and mass salmon escape
– Poisoning hundreds of lobsters from illegal pesticides smuggled into Canada
– Overstocking salmon pens
– Failing to follow regulations, including for environmental testing and reporting
Cooke is a company with scant regard for the law that will run roughshod through Tasmanian waters in a way we’ve never seen before. Our weak-kneed and government-bound EPA is no match for this corporate steamroller from Canada.
Our precious waters are already suffering from the unbridled growth of the fin fish industry. The Huon Estuary, Macquarie Harbour, the D’Entrecasteaux Channel and bays of the Tasman Peninsula are all heavily impacted from this toxic industry.
The Rockliff Government have committed to doubling the size of the foreign-owned fin fish industry, and they now have the artillery to realise that nightmare for Tasmania’s northern and southern waterways.
Along with Brazilian behemoth JBS, Cooke will sack and ravage our coastlines, and they’ll ultimately move on when there is nothing left to pillage.
With no State of the Environment report apparent, and overwhelming evidence of the environmental degradation caused by the salmon industry, the Rockliff government must enforce a moratorium on growth for this toxic foreign-owned industry before it’s too late.
Media release – The Australia Institute Tasmania, 16 August 2022
Response to Fin Fish Report Welcome, More Needed to Reel in Salmon Industry
The Australia Institute Tasmania commends the Tasmanian Government for recognising the need to improve salmon farming practices in its response to the Legislative Council Inquiry Report on Finfish Farming in Tasmania.
The long-awaited Legislative Council Fin Fish Farming Inquiry report tabled in Parliament in May, highlighted the many problems faced by the industry. The Inquiry’s top recommendation was for a revised Salmon Industry Growth Plan to be developed as one aspect of an overarching Marine Plan for Tasmania.
However, more work is still needed to protect Tasmanian coastal waters, with east coast waters warming four times faster than the global average. Tasmania has depleted fish stocks, ignored flow-on effects from this, eutrophication of inshore waters, threatened species and paltry habitat protection. Land-based activities, along with changes to freshwater and sediment flows, are also impacting the health of our marine environment. This all calls for fundamental improvement to our overall ocean management.
Key points:
- The Tasmanian Government has supported, or supported in principle, the majority of the Inquiry’s recommendations, recognising the need for a major overhaul of the industry.
- The review of the Marine Farming Planning Act 1995, is welcomed and provides an opportunity to improve the legislative framework in time.
- However, Government is delaying a move towards a more integrated approach to marine management, despite this being the top recommendation arising from the Inquiry
- Parliamentary Inquiry’s top recommendation is for a revised Salmon Industry Growth Plan to be developed as one aspect of an overarching Marine Plan for Tasmania.
- Best available science continues to find concerning impacts of salmon farming on sensitive and sheltered inshore waters. The Legislative Council recommended salmon farms should be removed outright from these waters.
“The science continues to tell us that sensitive, sheltered and biodiverse inshore waters are not appropriate for salmon farming. We commend the Government for recognising that only sustainably operated, best practice sites should continue inshore and look forward to the removal of leases that do not meet these standards,” said Eloise Carr, Director the Australia Institute Tasmania.
“However, the Government is missing an opportunity to align the salmon industry with overall planning and management of Tasmania’s marine environment, as the Parliamentary Inquiry recommended.
“The salmon industry continues to receive special treatment ahead of all the other users of Tasmania’s coastal waters. Meanwhile, our coastal waters are under threat from a range of pressures beyond salmon farming, such as from fishing, climate change, introduced species and pollution.
“The best way to address this would be to concurrently look at all activities and sectors that use our coastal waters and include them in planning and management considerations, this is the top recommendation arising from the Inquiry.
“The salmon industry supports a move to more integrated and coordinated management of ecosystems, so that all activities or sectors that potentially have an impact are included in management considerations. We look forward to working together with the Government to achieve this.”
