MEDIA RELEASE – DISINGENUOUS PRIME MINISTER’S SUPPOSED OLIVE BRANCH TO SALMON INDUSTRY TOO LITTLE TOO LATE

15 February 2025

The Prime Minister’s letter to the salmon industry that spruiks a legislative fix to unpick his Government’s EPBC review into salmon farming in Macquarie Harbour is nothing more than a political solution to stave off vote-losses at the impending Federal election.
The Prime Minister could have ended the misery that his Labor Government has inflicted on salmon communities at any point since it gave into activist claims to review salmon farming in Macquarie Harbour in November 2023. Yet, he has cynically waited until Parliament’s February sittings ended to offer a commitment of introducing legislation that would save salmon worker jobs when it is clear that Parliament may not even return.
Shadow Environment Minister Jonno Duniam questions why this wasn’t done in the last two weeks that the Parliament has sat: “For months, the Coalition has offered to the Government to fast track legislation that would save salmon jobs in Tasmania,” Senator Duniam said.
“Now we are in the situation where the Prime Minister is about to call an election, and we won’t have a chance to pass these laws that probably haven’t even been drafted.”
“In the next term, the Labor Party may even be in a minority government with the Greens political party. There is no chance that the Greens would let legislation of this nature proceed because they are ideologically opposed to it. This is a promise that the Prime Minister can’t deliver upon.”
“A Government that is serious about the welfare of Tasmania’s salmon communities would have already acted on this. This letter is disingenuous and disrespectful to communities that have suffered under the weight of uncertainty that the Labor Government has forced upon them.”
“The Prime Minister has been dragged kicking and screaming to the table on this issue. It is no surprise that he has made this hollow commitment after the fact that he could acted in the Parliament over the last two weeks, let alone the last year.”
“The Coalition have always supported the science-based approach of the salmon industry and the Maugean Skate co-existing together. We are the only political party that will genuinely protect salmon jobs.”