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

This week marks 12 months since one of the most shameful things that I've seen in this chamber occurred, which was the Albanese Labor government weakening their previous environmental protection and biodiversity conservation laws for the salmon industry. It was the very last thing it did on the last day of the last parliament. Only two weeks ago we heard, through FOI documents through ex-senator Rex Patrick—quick shout-out for him—that the government's own department told them in the strongest possible terms that salmon farming in Macquarie Harbour needed to end if we were going to protect the critically endangered Maugean skate. It appears that not only was this legislation to weaken environment laws brought in in defiance of the government's own advice but because of this advice—in other words, had this advice been provided in a court of law, there would be nothing that the salmon companies could've done. It was that black and white.

This looks to be direct cronyism and direct institutional corruption where a government would weaken laws for an industry so that they could win a seat in Tasmania at the election. Since then, data from CSIRO shows the salmon industry in Tasmania has no social licence. And just last Friday, to top it all off, we found out that new data from the EPA shows that dissolved oxygen levels, which are what's driving the skate to extinction, are getting worse, which is exactly what the department said to the previous minister before they shamefully weakened environment laws for the salmon industry. That's why the salmon industry has no social licence, and that's why, now, we need to protect the Maugean skate and hold the salmon industry to account.