Murray Watt (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations) Share this | Hansard source

I'm not directly familiar with the comments that the Prime Minister made, and I am conscious that we are going through a legal process at the moment, but what I know is that the Prime Minister has made very clear his support for the workers in the salmon industry. It's why our government has provided substantial funding in partnership with the industry to, for instance, do trials of oxygenation of Macquarie Harbour, given that oxygen levels are an issue there. It's why we've funded a captive breeding program for preserving the maugean skate, which I understand has been quite successful, because of course the outcome that I think everyone wants to seek here, certainly from the discussions I've had with the workers in the industry—people want to see a viable salmon industry go forward but also want to make sure that we don't have an extinction of the maugean skate on our hands as well.

There are some people who are only concerned with one of those issues. From the government's point of view, we think that we can do both, and that's what we'll keep working with the scientists and the local community on.