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

Macquarie Harbour on the west coast of Tasmania is the last place on earth you will find the ancient Maugean skate. It is believed that only a thousand skate still exist. Science has clearly shown that Atlantic salmon farming is contributing to poor dissolved oxygen levels in the harbour, which is pushing the skate to extinction. But the toxic industrial salmon farming industry is on the warpath, and it's determined to let nothing, not even the extinction of a wild and endangered marine species, get in the way of its corporate profiteering.

This week we discovered that the Tasmanian government shamefully backs it in. It's no surprise to those Tasmanians that have always seen the Liberal Party and Tasmanian governments back in big business and big industry at the expense of the environment. I say this to the Senate: together the Tasmanian government and the salmon industry will be on the wrong side of history.

Atlantic salmon farming regulation in Macquarie Harbour has been a mess for decades—a mess entirely of the making of the regulator in Tasmania and the salmon industry. Successive federal environment ministers have watched on as salmon industry regulators and the Tasmanian government have failed spectacularly to protect and prioritise the environment and this endangered skate.

The science is abundantly clear: to fix the problem, industrial Atlantic salmon farms must be removed from Macquarie Harbour, not the native species from its wild home. These fish are introduced, invasive species. Faced with the grim prospect of failing to uphold its own zero-extinctions pledge, the federal government appears to be acting on this. I urge the federal environment minister to continue to take this issue seriously and to listen to the science and not be bullied by the Tasmanian salmon industry.