Confusion over Labor’s Tasmanian salmon ‘fix’

Anthony Albanese has floated a radical solution to the Tasmanian salmon standoff: granting fish farms in Macquarie Harbour a ‘national interest exemption’ from federal environmental laws.

A Maugean skate in Macquarie Harbour.

Anthony Albanese has floated a radical solution to the Tasmanian salmon standoff: granting fish farms in Macquarie Harbour a “national interest exemption” from federal environmental laws.

The extraordinary move is usually reserved for emergencies such as disaster responses and endangered species interventions but would sidestep a protracted review of salmon farm approvals in the western harbour.

Multiple sources have confirmed the Prime Minister personally raised the option in a meeting with a salmon industry delegation in August, while the industry is “frustrated” there has been little contact since to clarify a way forward.

The exemption would require industry to acknowledge salmon farming in the vast harbour is a “controlled action” under federal environment law, but would grant special permission for it to continue to operate without change, in the national interest.

Industry agrees the move may be needed as a stopgap if Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek decides fish farming in the harbour is a controlled action – requiring a full environmental impact statement.

Millions of penned fish could not be quickly removed from the harbour to comply with the ruling, creating a legal uncertainty over the farms, while the EIS process could take years.

However, salmon companies strongly oppose the exemption as a first option, fearing it would only prolong uncertainty, invite green litigation and allow critics to tarnish salmon products as environmentally damaging.

“None of that provides certainty for anyone,” said Salmon Tasmania chief executive Luke Martin. “The reality of that means that issue would potentially go on for another three or four years. That’s not doing the right thing by the industry or the community.”

Bob Brown Foundation activists hang a banner on a salmon pen in Macquarie Harbour.

The $1.46bn salmon industry has instead pitched a “win-win” plan by which Ms Plibersek would declare fish farming a non-controlled action, allowing it to continue subject to updated conditions reducing salmon numbers if oxygen levels in the water drop below certain trigger points.

“As the oxygen levels change, so should the production levels and the capacity in the harbour – that’s something we accept and would support,” Mr Martin said.

It is unclear whether the PM has discussed the exemption option with Ms Plibersek, amid ongoing speculation of a feud between them rekindled over the PM’s kiboshing of a deal with the Greens over the Nature Positive reforms and more recently fuelled by differences over the salmon standoff.

Neither the PM nor Ms Plibersek would comment on the exemption option. “The minister will listen to the science and follow the law, as she is required to do,” said a spokeswoman for Ms Plibersek. “We are strong supporters of the salmon industry and the jobs it brings, but it must be done in a sustainable way.”

Mr Albanese’s spokeswoman said he had “nothing to further to add”.

Ms Plibersek is reconsidering 2012 federal environmental approval for expanded fish farming in the harbour after concerns from conservation groups and the Threatened Species Scientific Committee that low oxygen water levels are having a “catastrophic” impact on the endangered Maugean skate.

The floating of the exemption points to significant concern within the Labor government – backed by polling – that uncertainty over Ms Plibersek’s review will damage the party’s vote in key Tasmanian marginal seats.

There is a concern in the industry that Ms Plibersek is focused on appeasing green-tinged voters in her own electorate of Sydney. However, her critics acknowledge she must follow a defined legal process, particularly given almost certain litigation whatever she decides.

She must also await a brief from her department, which as of Thursday still had not been provided to her, a year after the review began.

Conservationists and industry both want the issue legally resolved before the election, rather than by any fraught “work around” or non-binding promises during the coming election campaign.

Industry wants talks. “The reality is there’s been no discussions between us and the government around what the industry is willing to do,” Mr Martin said. “They are, frankly, not even responding to the correspondence we’ve been sending them with updated science.

“It has been incredibly difficult to get any kind of dialogue with Minister Plibersek and her department. It is quite frustrating, as we are all just sitting in limbo and relying on a lot of rumour and speculation.”

Fish farms in Macquarie Harbour

Coalition environment spokesman Jonathon Duniam attacked Mr Albanese’s exemption proposal, saying all that was needed was a decision to back salmon farms.

“There cannot be a workaround on this that damages the viability of the salmon industry in Macquarie Harbour, whose workers genuinely care about the local environment,” Senator Duniam said.

“The government needs to urgently cease the EPBC (Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act) process, and end the accompanying stress and anxiety for the entire Tasmanian salmon industry.”

Amid growing anger Mr Albanese and Ms Plibersek are yet to visit the most impacted community of Strahan, on Macquarie Harbour, Opposition Leader Peter Dutton will visit Tasmania on the weekend to seek to ram home the Coalition’s perceived electoral advantage on the issue.

Visiting Triabunna, on the state’s East Coast, in the ultra-marginal Labor-held seat of Lyons, Mr Dutton will demand an immediate resolution to the uncertainty.

The Coalition leader on Thursday said federal Labor was “more interested in saving their own seats than they are in saving this (West Coast Tasmania) community”.

“The government’s prepared to hang the local community out to dry,” he said.

Despite the Australian Workers Union and prominent Tasmanian Labor figures speaking out in defence of the salmon industry, Mr Dutton said there was a desire inside the Labor government to “close down salmon farming” and import salmon.

West Coast Mayor Shane Pitt recently wrote to the PM urging him to “make good” on his June commitment to visit Strahan. “Prime Minister, the West Coast is facing the harrowing prospect of a second consecutive Christmas with their fate hanging in the balance as your Minister for the Environment … continues to consider the future of salmon aquaculture in Macquarie Harbour,” Mr Pitt wrote.

“It is cruel to continue to leave workers, their families, children and our community to suffer like this. Right now, families are wondering where they should enrol their kids in school next year. To be frank, the fact that your minister and government has not taken this decision has caused a lot of suspicion.

“There is a widely held fear that your government is choosing to delay a decision until after an election, and will shut down the industry the very next day – should you be re-elected. Please, Prime Minister, you have the power to end the uncertainty today – let our salmon workers get on with their jobs and let our community get on with their lives.”

Ms Plibersek’s spokeswoman said the minister had “met with Salmon Tasmania a number of times, including in Devonport”. “She has also previously visited Strahan on multiple occasions,” she said.

Ms Plibersek, meanwhile, has approved a trial of deepwater aquaculture in Bass Strait. While shifting the industry offshore, into better-flushed waters, long-term, may reduce environmental impacts, the trial does nothing to address the current crisis in Macquarie Harbour.

Additional reporting: Geoff Chambers