In news that will shock many Tasmanians, the Rockliff Government does not know how much florfenicol has been used in our waterways.
Last week the Greens asked Premier Jeremy Rockliff how much of this antibiotic was used over the course of the now-suspended emergency permit. The response was that the EPA doesn’t know and will only find out once it receives monitoring reports from the salmon industry – reports that are still outstanding, even for treatments completed in November.
We were surprised the EPA didn’t know such basic information, so we followed up on this issue by asking the Premier if any other part of the government knew. Perhaps NRE? Biosecurity Tasmania? The Chief Vet?
Alarmingly, the Premier’s answer confirmed that his government has no idea how much florfenicol has been used by the salmon industry in Tasmania. He simply told us again that this information will be provided by the industry in their monitoring reports.
So here we are, three weeks after florfenicol use was suspended, and the State Government does not know how much of this controversial antibiotic has been put into the marine environment In fact, four months later, the government still doesn’t even know how much was used in November. What a sick joke.
So much for putting the salmon industry on notice.
The Rockliff Government’s complete ignorance about how much florfenicol the salmon industry has used in Tasmanian waters is an indictment on them. Their failure to care means it will be many months before Tasmanians know just how much antibiotic was used.
Rather than continuing to put their head in the sand, the government needs to step up and insist that salmon companies provide this important information immediately.
