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Albanese government reaffirms decision to allow salmon farming in Tasmania, despite fears for endangered Maugean skate Albanese government reaffirms decision to allow salmon farming in Tasmania, despite fears for endangered Maugean skate
(30 minutes later)
Environmental groups had lodged a reconsideration request over a 2012 decision to allow for the expansion of salmon farmingEnvironmental groups had lodged a reconsideration request over a 2012 decision to allow for the expansion of salmon farming
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The Albanese government confirmed it will permit salmon farming to continue in Macquarie Harbour in Tasmania, despite concerns from conservationists about the risks to the endangered Maugean skate.The Albanese government confirmed it will permit salmon farming to continue in Macquarie Harbour in Tasmania, despite concerns from conservationists about the risks to the endangered Maugean skate.
The environment minister Murray Watt wrote to three environment groups on Wednesday notifying them of the widely-expected decision, which follows the passage of amendments to Australia’s nature laws to protect the salmon industry earlier this year. The Bob Brown Foundation and the Australia Institute accused the environment minister, Murray Watt, of condemning the skate to extinction.
The groups, including the Bob Brown Foundation and the Australia Institute, had asked the government in 2023 to reconsider a 2012 decision to allow a salmon farming expansion in Macquarie Harbour without an assessment under Australia’s environmental laws. The groups were among three organisations to receive a letter from Watt on Wednesday notifying them of the widely-expected decision, which follows the passage of amendments to Australia’s nature laws to protect the salmon industry earlier this year.
Watt said all relevant information had been carefully considered before reaching his decision: The groups had asked the government in 2023 to reconsider a 2012 decision to allow a salmon farming expansion in Macquarie Harbour without an assessment under Australia’s environmental laws.
“The Albanese Government remains committed to the protection of the Maugean skate, including through our funding of oxygenation measures in Macquarie Harbour. Watt said all relevant information had been carefully considered before reaching his decision.
Eloise Carr, Director of the Australia Institute Tasmania said: “The Albanese Government remains committed to the protection of the Maugean skate, including through our funding of oxygenation measures in Macquarie Harbour.”
“Minister Watt is trying to put an end to this issue through this decision, but it’s not going away. Whether the changes to the EPBC (Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation) Act apply to Macquarie Harbour remains an open question.” Watt’s decision followed amendments to Australia’s Environment Protection and Biodiversity Act in March that were designed to prevent reconsideration requests in cases in which developments had been deemed “not a controlled action” and the minister had specified that the development required state or territory oversight.
More details soon … It would apply when the development was already under way and had been ongoing or recurring for at least five years.
The legislation was rushed to parliament before the May federal election and was subject to a fiery debate in which the Greens environment spokesperson Sarah Hanson-Young waved a dead salmon in the senate after asking if the government had sold out its environmental credentials for “rotten, stinking extinction salmon”.
The Bob Brown Foundation said Watt had invoked the “controversial and outrageous new law” to reach his decision to allow salmon farming to continue without an assessment and “has today condemned the Maugean Skate to extinction”.
“It is a disgrace that a species that was identified by the Albanese government as a priority threatened species in 2022, has been purposely abandoned by 2025.”
“It took our looming court case to force the minister to make a decision after more than two years of inaction, deflection and delay,” said Antarctic and marine campaigner Alistair Allan.
He said the group would be challenging “this manifestly wrong decision”.
The Australia Institute’s Tasmania director Eloise Carr said:
“When Murray Watt became the Environment Minister, he said the salmon industry needed to lift its game on sustainability.”
“But this decision protects the commercial salmon industry and condemns the skate to extinction.”
She said Tasmanians were “sick and tired of government inaction to address the harmful effects of the foreign-owned salmon industry on Tasmanian waterways.”
The Maugean skate has been listed as endangered since 2004.
Concern about its plight escalated last year when a government scientific committee said numbers in the wild were “extremely low” and fish farming in the harbour was the main cause of a substantial reduction in dissolved oxygen levels – the main threat to the skate’s survival.
The committee said salmon farms in the harbour should be scaled back and recommended the species be considered critically endangered.
A separate report by the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies earlier this year said surveys suggested the skate population was likely to have recovered to 2014 levels after crashing last decade. It stressed the need for continued monitoring.