The salmon industry were responsible for a catastrophe in Tasmanian waters earlier this year. It led to the Premier – rightly – putting the industry ‘on notice’. Despite this, the Premier would not commit in Parliament to pulling salmon corporations into line before the upcoming summer.
Last summer’s marine disaster saw diseased and decaying salmon and fat globules washing up southern Tasmanian beaches, animal cruelty and trucks and trucks of dead fish being dumped.
The government’s multiagency review of the event described a lack of accurate and timely information from the salmon industry had ‘delayed critical decision-making’. No surprise to the community there.
But the Report didn’t even give the industry a slap on the wrist for the destruction it had caused. The strongest action was the industry could “consider” writing their own Code of Practice for managing mortality events.
There were no recommendations to modify stocking levels, change biosecurity practices, or anything else. Just a continuation of industry self-regulation, and a blank cheque to dump untested antibiotics in Tasmania’s waterways.
This is no change to current practice. Definitely not putting the industry on notice.
Today the Greens tabled a petition sponsored by Neighbours of Fish Farming, containing nearly two thousand signatures, calling for a Parliamentary inquiry into the summer’s events. For the petitioners, the government’s ‘review’ won’t pass the sniff test.
The Liberal Government is allowing the salmon industry to get away with the largest mass mortality event in Tasmania’s aquaculture history. To prevent another marine disaster this summer, the Premier needs to strengthen the EPA’s enforcement powers, require full transparency of mortalities and antibiotic use, and require destocking to mitigate disease.
