Aquaculture inquiry report calls for brakes to be pulled on Tasmanian fish farm expansions
David Killick | The Mercury | 24 May 2022
THERE should be no expansion of the state’s fish farming until the government finalised a growth plan and a biosecurity plan for industry, a parliamentary committee has recommended.
The Legislative Council subcommittee Report on Fin Fish Farming in Tasmania was tabled in state parliament on Tuesday.
The inquiry, which has been running since 2019, recommended improvements to independence, transparency and accountability within the industry to boost public confidence it was being conducted appropriately.
“Evidence received by the inquiry demonstrated a general community disquiet and discontent at the lack of opportunity for community input regarding the place of the industry in our state’s shared environment, local communities and economic profile,” the report noted.
“While government progresses plans for expansion of fin fish farming, it is apparent community confidence in the regulation of the industry is reducing.”
But the report said there was room for the industry to grow if areas for expansion and targets were developed transparently and according to evidence.
“Until a revised Salmon Industry Growth Plan is finalised, the subcommittee recommends no further expansion of the Tasmanian fin fish farming industry,” the report said.
It also recommended “further expansion of the fin fish farming industry be postponed until the Biosecurity Plan has been completed.”
And it also recommended a review of fees and levies to ensure the industry was paying its way, stronger enforcement of environmental protections and a review of the management of seals around fish pens.
Committee chair Meg Webb said she was hopeful the government would use the report to build a better aquaculture industry.
“We’re presenting in a nutshell, some strong encouragement to the government to consider ways that it can better build the social licence and build public confidence in the fin fish farming industry in this state,” she said.
“It’s a very constructive report that presents opportunities across everything from legislative reform through to better presentation and openness of data sharing through to better input from the community and transparency around decision making.
Minister for Primary Industries and Water Jo Palmer said the government would consider the report.
“The government is advancing the development of the 10-Year Salmon Plan, which will establish new long-term actions that support a vision for a sustainable industry, and which continues to support Tasmanian jobs and businesses across the supply chain.”
The Tasmanian Salmon Growers Association CEO Sue Grau said the Tasmanian salmon industry was innovative, agile, and worldleading and many of the recommendations specifically directed at the industry had already been implemented and acknowledged communication was vital.
“However, it is critical that any conversation is based on facts, not opinion,” she said.
“The industry provides significant volumes of monitoring and operational data to government and we see the value in transparent communication.”
Greens MP Rosalie Woodruff said the report was an indictment of management of the industry.
“This was a comprehensive take-down of the government’s approach to fin fish farming in Tasmania,” she said.
“It makes a complete mockery of the government’s propaganda and spin that they have the world’s best regulatory regimen — the finfish report finds it to be woeful.
Peter George from the Tasmanian Alliance of Marine Protection called on the government to heed the findings of the report.
“This report should spell the end of the salmon industry in Tasmania as we know it,” he said. “It calls for a removal of all salmon farms from protected waterways, which would mean that the industry has to move out of the Huon River out of the D’Entrecasteaux Channel, out of Long Bay on the Tasman Peninsula and out of Macquarie Harbour.”
And Bec Howarth from the Bob Brown Foundation welcomed the report, but said it didn’t go far enough.
“We believe that the only future for Tasmania is marine life and the marine environment is for the salmon industry to be told to fully remove their pens from the waterways altogether,” she said.
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