The House of Assembly this week passed the Greens’ donation reform legislation, a clear indication the Parliament – like Tasmanians – expects more political transparency.
Now would be a good time for the Rockliff Liberal government to come clean about which vested interests are lining their coffers and how much influence that might be buying.
Stony Rise developer, Tipalea appears to have made direct donations to an elected Liberal MP ahead of an unprecedented legislative intervention that approved a development which had been rejected by the Tasmanian Planning Commission. Of course, Labor supported them.
The extraordinary levels of backing both the Liberal and Labor parties are giving the multinational salmon behemoths begs the question. How much do JBL and Cooke donate to the old parties?
Now, there is a push from Business, Industry and Resources minister Eric Abetz to open a wild sardine fishery off Tasmania’s northeast, most likely to produce fishmeal for industrial salmon corporations. Who’s paying the piper to exploit our marine environment in the name of toxic salmon?
Sardines form a crucial part of the marine ecosystem, relied on by countless other species. Overfishing has crashed ecosystems in other parts of the world. This has a knock-on effect to other species. We must protect the wild fisheries surrounding lutruwita/Tasmania.
Minister Abetz was one of the champions for a supertrawler in local waters a decade ago which local people rightly rejected. This is his latest attempt to sellout Tasmania to corporate interests.
For Tasmanians to have any confidence in the Rockliff minority government they must fess-up. They didn’t vote against our donations’ disclosure Bill, so they should be prepared to be open and honest about their donors.


