Rosalie Woodruff MP | Greens Environment spokesperson
Minister Rockliff’s self-proclaimed status as a tough and impartial regulator of the salmon farming industry has been dealt a final body blow.
It’s clear the Minister has no intention of any serious scrutiny of Tassal’s expansion to the East Coast.
The Glamorgan Spring Bay Council will today consider an application from Spring Bay Seafoods, a partner of Tassal, about whether to approve shore facilities and a wharf needed for the Okehampton Bay salmon farm.
The application also includes a request to rezone existing public spaces, including parts of the Crown foreshore waters of Triabunna, from Open Space and Environmental Management to Light Industrial.
Instead of reminding Tassal that their operations are dependent on the outcome of the Okehampton Bay Review, the Minister has publicly endorsed the company's decision to continue with their plans for farming there.
Some of the critical baseline data needed for the Review have yet to be released, making fully informed submissions impossible. The review process is now without any credibility.
The tourism industry’s 2017 focus on the “world class aquatic and coastal beauty” of the east coast and the expanding juggernaut of the salmon farming industry are incompatible priorities.
Unless Minister Rockliff introduces an open, independent and tough regulatory framework, there is no way a course for sustainable jobs into the future can be charted.
The Greens’ submission to the Review called for the Liberal government to impose a moratorium on further salmon farm development anywhere in Tasmanian waters until there has been a comprehensive environmental and social impact assessment of the proposed doubling in size of the industry.