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

The salmon industry in Tasmania is a very important contributor to the Tasmanian economy and a great source of protein for a range of people across the globe. Unfortunately, this industry is under threat at the moment—would you believe, Acting Deputy President McGrath—because the Australian Labor government is hanging that industry out to dry. It has enabled a group called the Environmental Defenders Office, which it funds, to lodge a request for a review of permits that it issued in 2012 under then environment minister Tony Burke. It's very disappointing, and this process has dragged on and on, despite the calls from a number of Tasmanians, myself included, and the Tasmanian Premier Jeremy Rockliff. We have asked the government to hurry up and provide certainty to the community about the future of their jobs—jobs, which I might add, are in a sustainable industry, no matter what the anti brigade says.

We don't have to take the Premier's word for it—or mine, for that matter. Perhaps Kade Wakefield, the Assistant National Secretary of the Australian Workers Union is someone that the government might like to take note of. He said:

The government has been dragging its heels on this review but at the end of the day Tanya Plibersek will have to decide what she thinks is more important: the livelihoods of blue collar regional Tasmanian families or the overblown concerns of inner-city activists about a fish they've decided to make famous.

Or perhaps they'll listen to the mayor of the West Coast, Shane Pitt, who said:

I urge Minister Plibersek and the Prime Minister to think about the people here on the West Coast. It's cruel to let the kids and the families start the school year with this hanging over their heads.

We are well into the year; it's almost the end of February and this Damocles sword still hangs over the heads of the people in this community on the West Coast of Tasmania and this industry.

This government, supposedly the friend of the worker, is doing nothing. So at this state election, I hope Tasmanians remember which side of politics supported this industry and which side of politics stands up for workers; it is not the Australian Labor Party.