Tammy Tyrrell (Tasmania, Jacqui Lambie Network) Share this | Hansard source

The fate of the endangered Maugean skate is being blamed on fish farming, but the science is incomplete. The environment minister thinks that reducing fish farming in Macquarie Harbour is the answer, but has she thought about what that means to the people on the west coast? Strahan Primary School says that, if fish farming leaves Macquarie Harbour, it will decimate the school. If the farm goes, the school goes, and five-year-olds will then have to travel an hour each way on the bus to the next closest school. Fish farming jobs pay well. They put a roof over people's heads and put food on the table. If these jobs go from the west coast, they won't be replaced. Families will have to leave to find work.

We haven't explored all possible reasons for why the skate is dying. There is an invasive crab that the locals say is rampant in the harbour, and these crabs eat fish eggs. Science does know that there are new seal colonies at both Macquarie Harbour and Bathurst Harbour, but it can't tell us how many seals there are. We know seals can eat skate. The only 100 per cent known cause of skate deaths are massive storms fuelled by climate change. After one storm, one-third of the tagged skate died. We still can't explain what killed the skate in Bathurst Harbour, though. It's a marine reserve in the heart of a national park. There's never been fish farming anywhere near it. If we really care about saving the Maugean skate, shouldn't we find out what killed it there? If the fish farms close or reduce production, it will have a flow-on effect in Strahan to the doctor's surgery, the pharmacy, the Coffee Shack and Patrick's IGA—all things the town needs to survive. We owe it to the people of the west coast and the Maugean skate to finish the science and find out what is really killing the skate.