Peter Whish-Wilson (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

It almost feels surreal to me that I am standing here on the last morning of the 47th Parliament to vote on a bill that will be signing the death warrant for a species that has literally lived on this planet for millions of years—the maugean skate. This is a shameful moment for this parliament, for this government and for senators in this chamber who will condemn the skate to extinction.

I've been raising the plight of the skate in this parliament, in this chamber, at question time, at every estimates. I initiated a Senate inquiry in 2015 into Macquarie Harbour, which, in the industry's own words, was a 'ticking time bomb' for the maugean skate. This is not something that has happened overnight—a quick political fix for the Albanese government; this issue has been bubbling away. There are a lot of good people in the environment movement and in the community who care deeply about this issue and have been campaigning to try and get the skate protected. For the life of me, I can't understand why we are doing this, when all the best science tells us that this skate is endangered, almost certainly critically endangered, when the uplisting process to 'critically endangered' is underway at the moment and when the evidence is unanimous. This bill means that, under federal law, this skate is on the path to extinction. That's the definition of endangered.

The science tells us that salmon farming is the cause of the skate's rapid decline, and yet we are exempting the salmon industry from federal environmental laws. What gives? I'll talk about the politics of this in a second. But if, from listening to her, Senator Urquhart—who I have no doubt is going to become known as the 'senator for extinction' in this place—believes this is really about jobs, then I would say to the Senate that the government's own advice to the minister, their own briefing, said there were 20 jobs in Macquarie Harbour. Every job is important. There are 20 jobs, so I have a couple of questions for senators to consider before they vote for this: What's the price of the extinction of a species? Are 20 jobs worth us knowingly, actively driving a species to extinction? This is a serious moral question, and I don't ask it lightly. This is a clear-cut case. What we are about to do today, I've no doubt, will be looked at all around the world. I guarantee it. It has already been commented on in social media accounts all around the world today. It's going to resonate. If this is about protecting jobs at Macquarie Harbour, let me tell Senator Urquhart, the Prime Minister and all those in the Labor and Liberal parties: if you care about workers and jobs in the industry, the worst thing you could do is what you are doing right now. You are lighting a match under this issue. It is now on every TV screen around the country. Australians are starting to wonder whether they should be eating toxic Atlantic salmon from Tasmania. This is on the national agenda now, and it's not going to go away. This is going to spread like wildfire.

The worst thing they have done is to bring this stupid, dangerous, immoral legislation before this chamber, before this parliament. If it's not about the workers, is it about the politics? Well, there's no doubt the Labor Party want to win the seat of Braddon. But, as Senator Lambie said in here yesterday, they need to get out more often and talk to people. This is not a popular issue in Braddon or anywhere else in Tasmania. The fact that the government would bring special legislation for their mates in the salmon industry into the parliament, as the last thing they do in the 47th Parliament, and the fact that they would give more than $40 million in handouts to foreign owned multinational companies who do not pay any tax suggest institutional corruption. This is the institution of parliament and big political parties in bed with big, multinational salmon companies. It is cronyism. By any definition, this is straight-up cronyism and institutional corruption. It is the Prime Minister and the Labor Party saying: 'We'll give you money and we'll pass special legislation for you so we can win a seat.' That doesn't pass the pub test. That is corruption, whichever way you look at it. You are pushing a species to extinction and you're prepared to say: 'We don't care about extinction. We believe that a few jobs in the salmon industry and protecting its profits is more important.'

I would urge senators to look at the scientific advice of the Threatened Species Scientific Committee. They have made very clear what threats there are to the skate and to the World Heritage values of Macquarie Harbour, which is now known internationally as a biodiversity hotspot that needs to be protected. I would ask you to look at the evidence, please, before you sign the death warrant for this creature that has been with us since the age of the dinosaurs.

When I initiated a Senate inquiry into this issue 10 years ago, I had a manila folder put under my door with leaked emails from CEOs of Tasmania's salmon companies to the Premier at the time. They were saying: 'Regulate the industry. Do more to protect the skate, because, if you don't, this is going to blow up in everyone's face.' We had a Senate inquiry into that. Four Corners did an expose of it. That was 10 years ago, and the environment in Macquarie Harbour has only got worse because of climate change, extreme weather events and a lack of dissolved oxygen. The salmon companies are losing millions of fish in single upwellings, where the nitrogen load becomes so high and the oxygen levels become so low, because of the warming oceans and farming practices, that millions of fish are literally drowning in their own shit. That is what this is.