The Progress report on actions to prevent another catastrophic salmon mortality event is further evidence the Liberal Government is refusing to act to protect our marine environment and wild fisheries from the damaging impacts of the finfish industry.
After the disastrous impacts of florfenicol use, the Liberals has now handed the reins to the vested interests of salmon companies, who will produce their own risk assessment framework to reduce future harms.
Equally concerning, the Liberals are planning to extend the licence time periods for salmon companies to operate in public waters just as the Macquarie Harbour and Long Bay licences are up for renewal. It’s clear they are feeling the strength of community concern at these licences being renewed.
Despite the serious impacts of last summer’s mass mortalities, the Liberal Government chose not to do its job and regulate to protect future events, but asked the salmon industry to “consider” developing a voluntary code of practice to manage mortality events.
Anyone in a Tasmanian pub would know voluntary industry codes don’t work, and could list off fishing, grocery, forestry and other industries where these have failed. The government’s Progress update shows the salmon industry hasn’t even started on this pointless exercise.
While the Reflections and Learnings Progress report shows small improvements in monitoring and reporting salmon operations, these are woefully inadequate compared to the scale of the harm caused by this heavily polluting and expanding fish farm industry.
The first Reflections and Learnings report didn’t offer any solutions to prevent the destructive impacts from finfish operations, and this Progress report shows the Liberals are prepared to allow business as usual for these large multinational corporations.
The Liberal Government is refusing to implement the standards, level of scrutiny, and penalties needed to protect the marine environment and other wild fisheries from the finfish industry’s operations. The Liberals needs to regulate to require finfish companies to remove diseased fish from pens, to fallow diseased areas, and to reduce the density of production.
The Greens will keep standing with local communities, and the cray and abalone industries, to protect what is wild and beautiful in Tasmania’s public waters.
