Dr WOODRUFF – Premier, yesterday there was a packed meeting at Eaglehawk Neck on the Tasman Peninsula of locals who have long been concerned about the industrial fish farming that’s happening at Long Bay. When Long Bay was first announced as a place for salmon farming people were absolutely shocked. It has a very poorly flushed area and it has been seriously degraded over the years. You said you’d put the industry on notice, and of all places, this stands out starkly as one where salmon farming should never have started, let alone continue. Will you put the company on notice to move out of Long Bay?
Mr ROCKLIFF – The companies make decisions in terms of where they would like to farm. It is a huge planning process and a lot of community consultation takes place throughout the process. It’s very intricate, detailed, time-consuming and thorough. I’m not going to dictate matters of direction across the table now which were other people’s responsibility in planning processes. What we have on the table, though, is a study to look at the future of salmon farming. I want salmon farming to continue. I value the industry. Others have a different view in terms of where they see the future of the industry, but I support its strong future and also support continuous improvement.
The matters the community raises are food for thought when it comes to how we can build community confidence in salmon farming and maintain its social licence. It is a very valuable industry, we want to see it continuously improve and ensure that the community understands the value of salmon farming, but salmon farming also has to be maintained with high regulation. We’ve improved regulations over the course of the last decade to ensure that its social licence is maintained. There are always learnings. There was a very big learning with the mass mortality event last summer and no doubt we’ll continue to navigate what is a complex system, as are all farming systems.
Dr WOODRUFF – So when you said that you seriously intended to put the salmon industry on notice –
Mr ROCKLIFF – Yes, I said that in March this year.
Dr WOODRUFF – did you just mean that there will be a review undertaken that may take years into the future, despite all the things that are happening that are critical and could tip us over into a sort of marine crisis that we’re seeing in South Australia? Do you mean that you will make no changes to the regulations that will require salmon companies to change their practices such as polluting, killing dolphins, killing cormorants, killing seals – the horrors that we’re seeing every day – people being locked out of their waters for fishing and commercial industries. Are you actually saying as Premier of Tasmania that you will do nothing about that and you’re just going to wait for two years for a review to be done?
Mr ROCKLIFF – No, I’m not saying that.
Dr WOODRUFF – So what are you doing?
Mr ROCKLIFF – You’re characterising the industry in an extraordinarily bad light with your language, whereas the industry does a lot of good for regional communities with employment and building social capital in the communities as well. I will tell you why I don’t accept what you’re saying in terms of two years and nothing’s going to happen. Over the last 10 years we have consistently improved the regulation, the monitoring, the penalty provision and the independent oversight of the industry. There were significant reforms when I was primary industries minister because I was concerned about the need for the industry to continually improve when it comes to regulation and monitoring and to strengthen the penalty provisions around marine debris and other matters I have mentioned before.
In 2014 we inherited the salmon situation where the Department of Primary Industries, Parks, Water and Environment – now NRE Tas – was both the regulator and the monitor, if you like. We’ve separated that out in terms of the EPA to ensure that independence and there’s been continuous improvement along the way. We’ve had two salmon plans in between which point to continuous improvement, and with this study moving forward there will be findings, there will be recommendations and there will be community consultation around that to further improve the industry, for the community, for the environment, for the industry itself, no doubt, and for the community acceptance of the industry moving forward.
Dr WOODRUFF – Regulations have changed, I accept that. But they’re not proportionate to the harm that’s being caused. Because while the regulations have changed, the industry has massively scaled-up and is going into places they promised they would never be, like Brabazon Point. In 2019, the Chair of Tassal promised to get out of Brabazon Point in the Huon River, still there today. They’re not actually changing, and you need to step in and stop the harm so that industry continues, it must be checking the damage that’s being done. That means getting out of Long Bay, getting out of Brabazon Point, stopping the dolphins being killed. These are the things. Will you commit to looking at those things?
Mr ROCKLIFF – With respect, we have stepped in terms of the study moving forward, an independent study as well. We’ve continually stepped in, if you like, as the examples I’ve just given you. We have the relevant authorities in the EPA, that keeps the industry accountable. It’s not in the industry’s interest to not be accountable. The industry, when it comes to its production, when it comes to animal welfare, when it comes to environment, when it comes to a whole range of matters – it’s not in their interests to ignore community concerns and indeed, regulation as well, and so that’s why they’ve been very, very innovative in the last 10 years.
Not only has the regulations, in my view, at least tried or kept pace with community expectation, but also the industry themselves have invested enormously in research and development, in innovation. As a result of that, there are a number of small, medium and large businesses that are the beneficiary of that when it comes to some of the matters pertaining to net construction and underwater cameras. The other day I went to a place in Kingston with Ms Petrusma where the underwater robots actually identified the holes in the nets and then fixed them, sewed them together.
Dr WOODRUFF – 45, relevance.
Mr ROCKLIFF – I’m just highlighting the innovation, this is extraordinary and a very proud couple –
Dr WOODRUFF – If they were really concerned about transparency, why did the industry kick back so loudly on having a review of their practice?
CHAIR – Dr Woodruff.
Dr WOODRUFF – I will pass it over.
CHAIR – Yes.
