Australia Institute report claims Tasmania’s big salmon pays little company tax, overstates jobs

A progressive think-tank claims Tasmania’s big three salmon companies pay minimal company tax and employ less than 1 per cent of the state’s total workforce, which the industry angrily denies.

Australia Institute Tasmania director Eloise Carr. Picture: File

New analysis suggests that Tasmania’s three salmon giants paid a total of just $51m in company tax in nine years, despite recording a total income of $7bn over the same period.

The report by progressive think tank, the Australia Institute, released on Saturday, also examines Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) data to estimate that between 1100 and 1700 people work in the Tasmanian salmon industry – accounting for between 0.4 per cent and 0.7 per cent of total jobs in the state.

Salmon Tasmania has asserted that Tassal, Huon Aquaculture, and Petuna support more than 5100 full-time equivalent jobs across the state.

The peak industry body disputed the employment figures in the new report, and described the “tax attack” as a “low-rent tactic typical of the conservation movement”.

Tassal salmon pens, in Macquarie Harbour, Strahan, West Coast of Tasmania. Picture: MATHEW FARRELL

The publication of the paper comes as debate rages over the future of aquaculture at Macquarie Harbour amid concern the industry and other factors are contributing to the demise of the endangered Maugean skate.

Co-authored by Australia Institute senior economist Matt Grudnoff, research director Rod Campbell, and Tasmanian director Eloise Carr, the report also analysed ABS data to conclude that the likely number of salmon jobs on the state’s West Coast was 54 at a minimum and 76 at most (between 2.5 and 3.6 per cent of total employment in the area).

Salmon Tasmania has said there are 395 direct and indirect jobs in the region’s salmon industry but Ms Carr described these numbers as “misleading and deceptive”.

“All jobs are important, especially in regional communities, and workers should be supported to transition to sustainable employment. But the government needs to be making decisions based on fact, not fiction,” she said.

Examining Australian Taxation Office data, the report concluded that while the three Tasmanian salmon companies earned $7bn in total income between 2013–14 and 2020–21, they recorded only $51m in company tax payable.

“It appears that the Tasmanian salmon industry paid zero company tax in 2020–21, the latest data available,” the report states.

Salmon Tasmania CEO Luke Martin. Picture: Nikki Davis-Jones

Salmon Tasmania CEO Luke Martin said almost 400 jobs were supported by fish farming in Macquarie Harbour.

“I don’t know who has done this analysis, but I recommend they get out from behind their desk and head over to the Strahan school and ask the students there how many have parents working in the industry. I’ll give them a hint – it’s half,” he said.

“Unlike activist groups like the Bob Brown Foundation, who are exempt from paying any tax, the salmon industry pays its taxes in the same way as every other Australian industry.

“This includes state payroll taxes and the thousands employed in the industry pay income tax themselves. We are also the first and only industry in Tasmania funding its own regulatory costs.”