Julie Collins (Franklin, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Regional Development and Local Government) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It was a pleasure last week to visit Tassal, our salmon producer at Ranelagh in my electorate, with the shadow minister, the member for Hunter, Joel Fitzgibbon. We visited the hatchery down at Ranelagh. The hatchery was opened in 2010, and I was pleased to go along to that opening. While we were down there last week Tassal explained to us how the process is working and showed us their new hatchery, which is an expansion at Ranelagh. The current hatchery has salmon eyed eggs go in twice a year, so they can have salmon on the market in Australia the whole year round. The process from arriving in the hatchery to the plate takes about three years for salmon. The current hatchery re-uses more than 98 per cent of its water and is at Ranelagh in my electorate, as I said.

During our visit, Joel and I were able to see the new hatchery under construction. It means that Tassal will be able to produce at the site, for on-growing in Tassal's farms, 8.2 million smolt. That is more than double the current amount of smolt that is able to be produced at the hatchery. The project is estimated to cost between $25 million and $30 million. It is estimated that around 100 local contractors will be employed during the construction. This project is really important to my electorate. Tassal has tried to use locals from the local area in the construction, and of course there are long-term jobs that go with the salmon industry in Tasmania.

In Tasmania, we have seen the recent opening of the Huon Aquaculture site at Parramatta Creek, which was made possible by a $3 million grant provided by the former federal Labor government. This was a co-investment. During the break I was also pleased to be able to visit Huon Aquaculture's pens in the Huon River and the channel areas in my electorate and witness the great effort that has gone into the design of these new pens to protect and keep out the seals. I also had the opportunity to visit Tassal's processing plant for smoked salmon at Huonville.

This is a massive industry in Tasmania now. It has been in Tasmania for more than 30 years. Currently 43,000 tonnes of Atlantic salmonid and ocean trout is grown in Tasmania by farming. For the past five years that industry has grown at more than $1 million a week. It is now a $625 million industry for the Tasmanian economy. More than 80 per cent of the product is sold domestically. There is some export, mostly of the larger salmon, to Asian markets. The industry currently employs more than 1,500 Tasmanians directly and more than 3,700 FTEs around Tasmania and Australia. It is one of the employment success stories in Tasmania. The majority of these jobs are full time and are in regional and remote areas, particularly in Tasmania. This is an industry that wants to grow. It is estimated to be a billion dollar industry by 2030. I thank those companies for allowing me to visit.