“Reckless and outrageous attack”: Premier slams anti-salmon billboards

Anti-salmon billboards posted in on the mainland have provoked a strong response from Premier Peter Gutwein. WHY HE WANTS THEM TAKEN DOWN >>

Premier Peter Gutwein has slammed anti-salmon billboards on the mainland, urging those who posted them to take them down.

Billboards were put up in regional Victoria criticising Tasmania’s salmon industry and accusing those who eat salmon of “killing Tasmania.”

Tasmanian based group Neighbours of Fish Farming (NOFF) is behind the billboards and have said there could be more “graphic illustrations and messages” in capital cities and regional areas “over coming weeks and months”.

Mr Gutwein it was an “assault on workers” and on Tasmania’s brand.

“What I’ve read and what I’ve seen is a reckless and outrageous attack on an industry that is important to Tasmania in terms of its economy and in terms of its brand,” Mr Gutwein said on Friday.

“It will not just damage the salmon industry it has the capacity to damage Tasmania’s brand overall.

“I don’t think is fair or reasonable.”

The Premier said he was disappointed to learn the message was being driven by Tasmanians.

He accused the group who posted the billboards of being politically motivated.

“I’m sure it hasn’t escaped everyone’s notice that sometime in the next three to six months there will be a federal election,” Mr Gutwein said.

“This appears to me to be politics 101.

Anti-Tasmanian salmon billboard in regional Victoria. Source: Supplied.

“In the lead up to federal elections we would normally see a range of environmental matters raised and quite a noisy debate about them and that’s what I think is happening here.”

The Premier said Tasmania’s salmon industry was worth nearly $1bn to the economy.

NOFF president Peter George indicated it was unlikely the group would be removing the billboards.

He said it was the salmon industry was damaging Tasmania’s brand.

“I thank Premier Peter Gutwein for drawing attention to our billboards which we will happily take down when the Premier starts doing his job of bringing this rogue industry to heel and ends the destruction,” Mr George said.

“If the Premier won’t do his job of protecting the Tasmanian environment and Tasmanian communities, I can assure Tasmanians we will.

“It’s sad to see the Premier peddling the salmon barons’ propaganda.”

Anti-Tasmanian salmon campaign plastered on interstate billboards

BILLBOARDS have been erected in regional Victoria decrying the Tasmanian salmon industry’s “destruction” of waterways, with more of the signs set to be rolled out in capital cities across the country before the end of the year.

It’s just the latest salvo to be launched at the embattled industry following the publication of Booker Prize-winning author Richard Flanagan’s book Toxic, which is billed as an expose of the industry and its practices.

The Tasmania-based Neighbours of Fish Farming (NOFF) group is behind the new roadside billboards, the first of which reads, ‘Eating salmon? Killing Tasmania’ (pictured).

‘Eating Salmon? Killing Tasmania’ billboard in regional Victoria.

NOFF president Peter George said more “graphic illustrations and messages” would be seen in capital cities and other regional areas “over coming weeks and months”.

“We’re telling Australian consumers to forget the idea that Tasmanian salmon is ‘clean, green and healthy’ for them or for our precious island waterways,” he said.

“Tassal, Huon Aquaculture and Petuna will go on wreaking havoc with the state’s environment and its brand of clean, green and healthy products until consumers learn the truth and turn against their unhealthy, damaging product.

“No longer can Big Salmon hide behind the lie that their fish are anything but the caged chickens of the sea, swimming in their own filth, fed on ground-up wild-caught fish, caged chicken offcuts, chemical additives and soy beans frequently sourced from cleared Amazonian forests.”

Mr George said NOFF’s campaign would also have a presence in Tasmania and would target investors, shareholders and superannuation funds, warning them that “investing in Tasmanian farmed salmon must now be recognised as unethical”.

Julian Amos, a former state Labor minister who is now a spokesman for Tasmania’s three salmon companies, described the billboards as “purely inflammatory”.

“It damages the whole of the Tasmanian brand,” the Tasmanian Salmonid Growers Association spokesman said.

“This is extremely irresponsible. I can’t emphasise how irresponsible it is to such a broad range of interests within Tasmania – far beyond the salmon interest.

“It’s just extraordinary that they’d stoop so low.”