30 September 2024

Now that Woolworths has recommended that its shareholders block an activist-led resolution to stop using Macquarie Harbour-farmed salmon in its home brand products at its upcoming AGM, Tanya Plibersek needs to do the same by ending her review into salmon farming initiated by activist organisations.

The review, instigated a year ago by the Bob Brown Foundation, Australia Institute and Albanese Government-funded Environmental Defenders Office, has put the remote community of Strahan on Tasmania’s West Coast on tenterhooks. Salmon workers and families that rely on the industry await a decision by the Environment Minister that could shut down aquaculture at Macquarie Harbour and their livelihoods at any moment.

Shadow Environment, Fisheries and Forestry Minister Jonno Duniam is dismayed at the Albanese Government’s treatment of West Coast Tasmanians:

“Tanya Plibersek caved to extreme activists by initiating the review into salmon farming in Macquarie Harbour. This was not because of science but because of the ideology of some who simply want to get rid of this sustainable industry.”

“The Environment Minister now needs to do what Woolworths has done; listen to the facts and the science, not the hyperbole kicked up by extreme activists. Tasmania has the most sustainable and environmentally conscious aquaculture industry in the world that is the economic and social pillar of the remote community of Strahan and the wider West Coast community.”

“It is unacceptable for the 400 jobs and countless livelihoods are being put into question by Labor. They only need to take into account the recent independent data that revealed an increased presence of young Maugean skates within Macquarie Harbour to see that the industry and the skate can coexist. This certainly has foiled any further excuses for the Tanya Plibersek to shut down salmon industry operations in Tasmania.”

“The Coalition will do whatever it takes to protect salmon jobs across Tasmania. The same can’t be said of Labor MPs.”