Wooley: Albo’s fishing for a political win

It’s unlikely the Prime Minister’s pro-salmon farming stance will influence the upcoming election result, says Charles Wooley

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Tasmanian Senator Anne Urquhart during a visit to the Tassal salmon pens in Strahan, in December last year, which pre-empted his promise to enact legislation that would “ensure appropriate environmental laws are in place to continue sustainable salmon farming in Macquarie Harbour”. Picture: POOL/NewsWire

Dearly beloved,

In last week’s sermon I quoted from the Book of Wilkie and many of you were sore afraid and thought that the prophet spake truth and the end was nigh.

But just as many were of an angry countenance demanding, “What’s Wilkie ever done for us!”

Verily, harder than being an independent cross-bencher, is the role of a prophet.

From my childhood-forced ingestion of catechism at the Newnham Methodist Church I am armed with an appropriate text.

In Mark 6:4, Jesus, a prophet himself, noted the inherent danger, saying, “A prophet hath no honour in his own land”.

Of course, Jesus hadn’t seen Wilkie’s polling figures.

Happily, for our Clark prophet the most he can lose is his Hobart seat. But Wilkie has been there forever, or so it feels, and after almost a quarter of a century I doubt he is going anywhere. He retained his seat in 2022 by a margin of 20.82 per cent.

Still, I hear you ask the usual, “Where are the big election bribes/promises Andrew ever extracted for Clark?”

Senator Anne Urquhart, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and his partner Jodie Haydon talking to Petuna founder Peter Rockliff, at a community barbecue at the salmon company’s East Devonport site. Picture: NewsWire/Scott Gelston

I’ll take that on notice, but first can you even name the prospective Liberal and Labor candidates? And if they are really out there why would they bother?

The problem for Wilkie and the electorate of Clark, is that both parties have written off the seat: no high-profile candidates and no promises.

In the cynical pork barreling process that is so common in Australian politics, swinging seats get the goodies and safe seats get a lot less, while safe independent seats get absolutely nothing. Unless the member holds the balance of power.

Not since Brian Harradine has an independent Tasmanian politician held the keys to the kingdom and to the treasury.

Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, enjoys a meal of salmon at a community barbecue at salmon company Petuna’s headquarters, in East Devonport, recently. Picture: NewsWire/Scott Gelston Picture: NewsWire/Scott Gelston

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Tasmanian Senator Anne Urquhart during a visit to the Tassal salmon pens in Strahan, last year. This visit pre-empted his promise to enact legislation that would “ensure appropriate environmental laws are in place to continue sustainable salmon farming in Macquarie Harbour”. Picture: POOL/NewsWire

So-called ‘Laborials’ will decry him, but clearly Wilkie voices the concerns of the majority of his electorate, often described as “the greenest” in Australia.

But right now, as an independent voice against the multi-national might of the salmon industry, and faced with the bi-partisan compliance of state and federal governments, what can a mere local independent really achieve?

Another question is what can even a powerfully placed national environment minister achieve?

Tanya Plibersek has been in the portfolio since 2022 but recently she was relieved of her investigative powers by her boss Albo, who declared the salmon farmed in Macquarie Harbour, “The best in the world.”

Who knows. Perhaps had he indulged in a comparative taste test in the Chairman’s Lounge, or some other high-flyer venue, he might have found the Scottish variety is excellent on blinis with Beluga caviar topped with crumbed egg yolk and finely chopped shallots. All washed down with a bottle of Laurent-Perrier La Cuvee Brut.

But there are no Labor votes in saying that.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on board a Tassal boat, when he took a tour of the salmon pens at their Strahan salmon operation, in December, last year. Picture: NewsWire / Supplied

Prime Minister Albanese has preempted the result of his minister’s long-awaited inquiry into Tasmania’s divisive and fishy matters by promising legislation that would “ensure appropriate environmental laws are in place to continue sustainable salmon farming in Macquarie Harbour”.

(Read that twice and then explain the reason for having environmental laws.)

It is most unlikely Albo’s strong pro-salmon farming stance across the five Tasmanian seats will ever influence the federal election result because the issue is bipartisan for the major parties and so is politically void.

The fact is that Tanya Plibersek was effectively sacked over a regional issue in Strahan, a place only some older Australians might vaguely recognise from the long-ago Franklin River battle.

This time yet another Tasmanian environmental war is unlikely to attract much mainland attention despite Albo’s preference for salmon over skate.

The PM is often accused of having a tin ear.

Clearly he heard what the Big Salmon lobbyists said but did he get advice from everyday Tasmanians?

Some of the anti-salmon farming protestors from the Bob Brown Foundation who greeted Prime Minister Anthony Albanese when he arrived in Strahan last year. Picture: Bob Brown Foundation

We are a coastal people. Few of us live in the bush while most are within easy reach of the beach. At the height of the great forestry dispute, wood chipping occurred far from where most voters lived. To see the devastation, you had to go looking.

Salmon farming is happening in your backyard and that is a very different matter. If you fish, swim or sail, you can’t ignore it. Even if you don’t know a Maugean skate from a flounder, you do know the smell of rotting fish.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics tells me that about 1700 people work in the salmon industry, with only about 11 per cent of them at Macquarie Harbour in the targeted seat of Braddon. The same source tells me that about 80 per cent of the jobs are in Hobart and the South East.

Meanwhile the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies estimates that one in four of all Tasmanians go fishing, 81 per cent of them in the sea.

Marine and Safety Tasmania tells me that one in 17 Tasmanians own a registered boat while one in eight has a boat license. In fact, we have the biggest percentage of boat ownership and usage in the nation.

Minister for the Environment Tanya Plibersek. Picture: NewsWire / Gaye Gerard

Yes, this is all too much information.

I don’t know what Albo knows about us that I don’t know. But I do know that he has spent his whole life in western Sydney and in Canberra.

But back to the environment minister.

Such a rude political slap in the face might compel any self-respecting politician to ‘do a Keating’ and fulminate on the backbench. But so close to an election perhaps the miffed minister took the wise advice to eat an instructive and nutritious portion of humble (fish) pie and to plot.

Revenge might yet be eaten cold, if Albo fails to form a majority government.

If the polling is right, minority government is now possible for either party. But a prime minister who achieves such an inglorious result is unlikely to get a second chance at leadership.

He would need every political friend he can keep.

And one of them certainly won’t be Tanya Plibersek.

Charles Wooley is a Tasmanian-based journalist