Jonathon Duniam (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Environment, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Hansard source

There's a rumour going around at the moment—would you believe it?—that this could well be the last sitting week before the election, and I'd tend to think it is because, from listening to what both the government and their coalition partners, the Australian Greens, have had to say, you'd say it's all about sandbagging and holding together this little sham difference of opinion long enough for Australians to be distracted and not fooled into some allusion that this crowd over here, the Australian government, are pro jobs and that the Greens aren't the green tail wagging the Labor dog.

The Greens talk about what is to come, and, I have to tell you, this last sitting fortnight is a great representation of what is to come. I've lived through Labor-Green governments before and I can tell you one thing: they are bad. We hear someone talk about a bad bill that's bad for the environment or bad for the country. I'll tell you what's bad for the country, bad for the environment, bad for jobs and bad for the cost of living. It is a Labor-Green government and, if the polls are to be believed, that is what we're going to end up with after this election.

That is why it was so interesting to see the Senate inquiry report into this bill, the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Amendment (Reconsideration of Decisions) Bill 2024. Both Labor and the Greens lined up together to say: 'Do you know what? We aren't going to touch this bill'—for a range of spurious reasons. They provided their responses and their arguments around why they wouldn't. None of them stack up, because, at the end of the day, there are very few people in this chamber—an exception being a group called the Australian Greens—who believe the laws are broken, in the sense that they don't protect the economy, they don't protect jobs, they do not do anything to advance the cause when it comes to addressing the cost-of-living crisis and keeping jobs in our regional communities.

That's why it is just so ridiculous that, instead of working with the coalition on making sure this bill does something productive for a community that has been left on tenterhooks now for more than a year, almost 18 months, for two Christmases—families in the community of Strahan, in the electorate of Braddon, have been left wondering whether they will have jobs in the months to come, will be able to pay their mortgages or should re-enrol their kids in the local school. These concerns are real, and what this bill was about was attempting to address the issues that that community has faced.

To suggest that we have a good process in place now, where anyone anywhere in the country, masquerading as a concerned citizen or, indeed, as some might categorise them, a scientist, can throw up into the air the certainty of an industry which has operated, in Macquarie Harbour in this case, for more than a decade—for almost 13 years now this salmon farming operation has been in existence. But the Bob Brown Foundation, of course, is not a group of scientists. I don't know how many scientists they have on staff or in their membership, but they are not invested in good outcomes for that community; they are a political outfit. They are green activists who seek to do harm to industries that generate economic outcomes for our community, and it is on that basis that we think we do need to restrain who can make claims of this nature. The fact is that more than a decade after these permits came into operation you can have this happen.

We hear these claims that it's all about foreign owned companies deriving massive, dirty big profits. They're a terrible thing, these profits, which, of course, are invested in our communities by companies like Huon Aqua, Tassal, Petuna and employ people. The fact that they employ 5,000 people in our state is something that gets glossed over by those who oppose the industry and those who won't stand up for it. If you want to talk about foreign money, let's talk about the Neighbours of Fish Farming, who receive overseas donations and grants from foreign, opaque, dark, shady entities like the Global Salmon Farming Resistance. Who are they? Where are they from? Do they have our community's interests at heart. No, I don't think they do, not if they're based out of Argentina and we don't know who they are. Do you think that they want to have Tasmanians employed in the salmon industry? No, I don't think they do, but they're handing over lots of money to the Neighbours of Fish Farming. Indeed, the members of the Global Salmon Farming Resistance, this foreign organisation, have very strong ties with the Bob Brown Foundation and others who are anti industry, anti jobs and anti good outcomes for our community.

So I say that if you're serious about protecting this industry, if you're serious about getting a good outcome and if you're serious about saying you support the salmon workers, then, this being the last sitting fortnight that we will have before this election—and I think that is the case—do something before the election to provide certainty for salmon workers. Do something to ensure that this industry can operate with certainty into the future. You cannot say you support this industry, which, frankly, science has proven is sustainable, is manageable and will create jobs while protecting the environment and protecting the future of the maugean skate—do something! If you don't want to support this bill in its current form, amend it or, I don't know, move a motion to protect this industry. Call on this environment minister, who has sat on her hands and now sat on departmental advice for nearly 18 months, and do something to protect these jobs and this community. It is what any good Tasmanian would do. That's what I am doing, along with Senator Colbeck, Senator Chandler and Senator Askew.

I look forward to seeing how this bill is voted on, because I would characterise a vote against this legislation in one way, and that is, frankly, that you think what is happening here is okay, you think this green activist opposition to this industry is okay and you're going to let it continue. That's what it means if you vote against this bill. I commend the bill, of course, to the Senate.