Australians are being deprived of information on the consequences of the lack of responsible environmental policies by both major parties, writes Sue Arnold.
ARE PRIME MINISTER Anthony Albanese and Opposition Leader Peter Dutton using the Trump “kill environmental policies and legal protection” playbook?
According to press reports, Albanese intends to ram legislation through Parliament next week which will not only protect the contentious Tasmanian salmon industry but is intended to limit the powers of conservation groups to challenge past decisions that have allowed developments to go ahead.
The legal process is an amendment to the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999.
Tasmania’s Bob Brown Foundation describes why the level of opposition to the salmon industry should force the Federal Government to ensure urgent legal protection rather than support:
…huge fish pens [are] placed in some of the most beautiful and diverse locations… Hundreds of thousands of fish can be crammed into these pens, with their waste, chemicals and excess nutrients from fish feed polluting the water below.
Tasmania is factory farming in the sea.
The foundation says millions of Atlantic salmon have escaped the pens causing significant damage to native marine fish and wild fish. Nutrients dumped from the nets cause harmful algal blooms that smother rocky reefs, turning ecosystems into sludge-filled wastelands.
Perhaps the worst issue identified by the foundation is that huge supertrawlers plunder Antarctic krill to feed farmed salmon, thus depriving the foundational prey for the survival of almost all Antarctic animals.
Lawyers at the Environmental Defenders Office (EDO) indicate the salmon farming industry in Tasmania has rapidly expanded since starting in the mid-1990s. From 2003 to 2014, production of farmed salmon increased by 151 per cent. This massive expansion has seriously degraded the water quality and biodiversity of coastal waters according to the EDO.
Documents released under a freedom of information request in November 2023, relevant to the salmon industry’s expansion request, submitted 13 years ago, indicate the Government should not have allowed the expansion without a full environmental impact assessment. Salmon farming in Macquarie Harbour would have needed to stop while the assessment was undertaken.
In May 2012, the State Government approved the Macquarie Harbour lease expansion that would triple the state’s salmon production. The only legal barrier is an agreement by the three salmon companies ‘vowing to avoid significant impacts on the World Heritage Area and the endangered Maugean skate’.
Concerns over the impact on fish farms on an ancient ray-like species known as the Maugean skate have been the focus of ongoing efforts by Tasmanian conservation groups, scientists and communities for many years.
The Federal Government’s Threatened Species Committee found salmon fishing in the harbour had substantially reduced dissolved oxygen levels.
Last year, a group of eminent scientists wrote to Federal Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek, warning that lower oxygen levels linked to salmon farming would send the skate extinct without urgent intervention.
The Threatened Species Committee recommended the skate needed to be listed as critically endangered with only between 40 and 120 adult skates remaining in the wild. The species has survived since the time of the dinosaurs. Only found in Macquarie Harbour, the drop in dissolved oxygen levels affects survival rates in the young fish.
The 2012 extension allowed the farming area to be increased from 5.5 square kilometres to more than 9 square kilometres, making it the country’s largest site.
In 2017-18, 1.3 million fish deaths resulted in significant calls for farming to be cleared from the Harbour.
The EDO further reports that currently, salmon carcasses litter Tasmania’s beaches.
On the normally pristine beaches of Tasmania’s world-famous Bruny Island, globules of fish fat have been washing ashore. For weeks, beaches in the Huon Valley have been polluted with carcasses from a mass fish death event that unfolded at nearby salmon farms, killing more than 1 million fish.
According to a post on the EDO Facebook page:
On behalf of the Australian Marine Conservation Society (AMCS) and Humane World for Animals (HWA), we wrote to environment minister Plibersek in 2023 asking her to consider whether EPBC approval granted for salmon farming in Macquarie Harbour should be reassessed.
In November, Minister Plibersek called for submissions on this matter, but last month Prime Minister Albanese intervened, promising to change the law so salmon farming could continue in the harbour.
A third of the harbour is adjacent to a world heritage area.
The proposed EPBC amendment, which confirms Albanese’s non-existent environmental creds, should be considered in depth by the entire conservation movement. If the amendment succeeds in getting through the Parliament (relying on the Coalition’s support), conservation groups and the scientific community should take a good look at the loss of a critical lawsuit by Greenpeace USA against the fossil fuel industry.
Damages totalling US$660 million (AU$1.05 billion) were awarded to the Texas-based pipeline company Energy Transfer by a North Dakota jury. The company sued Greenpeace for its role in the 2017 Standing Rock protests against the Dakota Access Pipeline.
Greenpeace may have to end its operations in the U.S. Energy Transfer originally claimed US$300 million (AU$477.8 million) but the jury doubled the amount. The jury pool was widely expected to favour Energy Transfer. Efforts by Greenpeace lawyers to have the trial heard in other areas because of a likely bias were rejected.
The number of jurors with ties to the oil industry was a major concern.
As President Trump and his co-president Elon Musk systematically destroy virtually all environmental laws, policies and funded environmental research, it’s timely to check the status of this critical issue as Australia’s Federal Election draws closer.
Witnessing the ongoing efforts and rejection of any responsible environmental governance by not only Albanese but NSW Premier Chris Minns (who can’t keep his promises) – the public is still waiting two years on for any declaration of the Great Koala National Park – is creating growing alarm. The same can be said for all Labor states and the only Liberal Government in Tasmania.
The behaviour of the Tasmanian Liberal governments makes the case for the Coalition’s total rejection of environmental concerns.
Aware and concerned voters know that Dutton’s policies reflect no concern about anything involving biodiversity loss, climate change impacts, or upgrading environmental laws to deal with reality.
But the buck stops currently with Labor. How much evidence the voting public needs to demonstrate Labor, led by Anthony Albanese, is firmly resolved to ensure critical environmental issues remain quarantined is the essential question.
With literally zero coverage by the mainstream media, Australians are being deprived of significant information on the catastrophic consequences of the ongoing lack of any responsible environmental policies by both major parties.
It seems the only hope is a hung parliament.
The Greenpeace legal loss should serve as a constant reminder of the growing political damage approved by governments and the potential cost of opposition.
This is not how democracy works.
Sue Arnold is an IA columnist and freelance investigative journalist. You can follow Sue on Twitter @koalacrisis.
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