March 2, 2025 • 16 mins
Warmer waters, disease and antibiotics have pushed Tasmania’s salmon farms into crisis.
But it’s not just an environmental disaster – it’s also a political one.
With an election looming, the Albanese government is pouring millions into salmon farming in an attempt to save jobs and votes, even as rotting fish litter the shore.
Today, national correspondent for The Saturday Paper Mike Seccombe, on what is happening in Tasmanian waters – and how it will impact the upcoming election.
If you enjoy 7am, the best way you can support us is by making a contribution at 7ampodcast.com.au/support.
Socials: Stay in touch with us on Instagram
Guest: National correspondent for The Saturday Paper, Mike Seccombe.
Photo: Bob Brown Foundation
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
So Mike, to start with, can you tell me what
the locals in southeast Tasmania discovered recently?
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Well, it was about nine p thirty on Sunday morning,
a little over two weeks ago when Jess Coglin, who's
a campaigner with Neighbors of Fish Farming or NOF, she
got a phone call and it was a local calling
her to say that thousands of these oily, stinky globs
had washed up on for Ona Sands Beach, which is
about sixty kilometers south of Hobart. The caller suspected it
(00:27):
was fish food from one of the salmon farming pens
in the area. You know, there are scores of them,
and he said that his dogs as well as flocks
of guggles were quote in a frenzy eating it. So anyway,
Jess grabbed Ajar hastened down to the beach to grab
a sample and see for herself this massive amount of
gobs that were scattered along the entire length of the beach.
(00:48):
And she collected samples, intending to send them off to
the state's epa inter alia. She rang a contact of
hers who was a retired diver and he said, break
open some of the larger clumps, and she did, and
inside was pink flesh and fish scale. So it wasn't
just fatty stuff, it was actual chunks of fish.
Speaker 3 (01:07):
She realized pretty quickly.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
I guess that it wasn't fish food, obviously, it was
dead rotting salmon.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
That's just gross spike.
Speaker 3 (01:16):
Well it is. There were thousands of these things.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
There were small blobs of fatty stuff and there were
larger chunks that were actual fish flesh.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
From Schwartz Media on Daniel James. This is seven am.
Warmer waters, disease and antibiotics have pushed tasimani As salmon
farms into crisis. But it's not just an environmental disaster.
It's a political one. Now, with an election looming, the
(01:47):
Albaneze government is pouring millions into salmon farming, hoping to
save jobs and votes in the process, even as rotting
fish littered the shore. Today National correspondent for the Saturday paper,
Mark Second on what is happening in Tasmanian waters and
why it might impact the upcoming election. It's Monday, March three. Mike,
(02:20):
You've been looking into the salmon industry in Tasmania and
how it's likely to impact the upcoming election, So can
you tell me what you specifically set out to investigate?
Speaker 2 (02:29):
Well, funny story. I actually started to look at the
Albanesi government's recent announcements of funding to prop up salmon
farming at Macquarie Harbor on the west coast of Tasmania,
where Labor is trying to win the seat of Bratton,
but events very quickly redirected mealswhere down to the southeast
corner of the state and to the seat of Franklin.
The southeast of Tasmania produces the bulk of farmed salmon
(02:51):
in in Tasmania and in the nation. It's a billion
dollar industry. It produces roughly eight hundred thousand tons of
fish a year. We hear a lot about Macquarie Harbor
because of the threat of extinction of the more Gan skate,
but it only counts for about ten percent of production.
The southeast has hundreds of pens floating around holding millions
upon millions of fish. And the seat that I wound
(03:14):
up being more interested in is the seat of Franklin,
which is one of the few labor held seats being
targeted by a climate two hundred in this election. Mostly
they go after liberal health seats, and Franklin is also
the only one held by a current cabinet minister, that
is Julie Collins, the Minister for Agriculture and importantly Fisheries,
and against her is running a number of candidates, including
(03:37):
a Green but the interesting one is Peter George. He's
got a bit of a profile. He's a former senior
reporter for the ABC. A lot of people would remember
him from Four Corners and Foreign correspondent. He's also the
founder of a group called Neighbors of Fish Farming, which
is a group that's been campaigning against the industrial fish
farming in Tasmania for about a decade and that's essentially
(03:59):
what's going to be George's pitch running as an independent
for this election. That was one of the interesting things
that shifted my focus. But the bigger one was that
I started hearing about a bizarre and frankly gross thing
that was happening on some beaches in the southeast in
the electorate of Franklin.
Speaker 4 (04:15):
A shoreline discovery causing.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
A stinct There were chunks of what appeared to be
salmon flesh partially broken down at very very well.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
So it became pretty clear pretty quickly that this was
dead rotting salmon, So where were these globs coming from?
Speaker 2 (04:32):
They're the result of what happens when salmon die. They
sink to the bottom of the pens, they rot, and
then their flesh an oil rise back up to the surface,
and that appears to be what happened here. As to
where they came from, Jess Coglan and her other activist
friends suspected they came from a farm being operated by
Huon Aquaculture, which is one of the two big producers
(04:55):
of Atlantic salmon in Australia, and sure enough, later that
day workers from Huon Aquaculture turned up at the beach
and began cleaning it up.
Speaker 3 (05:03):
Although she says they didn't actually identify themselves.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
They weren't in uniform or anything, and they wouldn't answer
any questions that the locals put to them. But it
wasn't just Forona's hands. Remains continued washing up on other
beaches too, both on the mainland side of the channel
and also on Bruney Island, which is just across the
other side of the channel, and there employees from the
other big aquaculture company, Tassel, were witnessed cleaning up the mess.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
Right, So there might have been something bigger going on
here than just an accident one particular seven farm.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
It would appear to be the case, and it would
appear that it wasn't just fish in one of the
scores of pens that doted the channel. It was more
widespread than that. But even before then there were signs
that something major was going wrong, because a week prior,
hugh On Agriculture had revealed that it was using antibiotics
at one of its sites near Bruney Island, and then
(05:58):
on February fourteen, our Brown Foundation released drone footage of
hundreds of dead and decomposing fish being vacuum pumped from
a pen well to the north near the Tasmanian Peninsula.
By then was pretty obvious that some kind of major
incident had happened, probably a disease outbreak. But for a week,
maybe longer, neither the Tasmanian Environmental Protection Agency nor the
(06:23):
companies involved, you know, provided much in the way of
detail about what was happening.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
So when did we start getting answers.
Speaker 3 (06:30):
Mike Well, it took a while.
Speaker 2 (06:32):
Under pressure from environmentalists and the media, the Tasmanian EPA
put out a statement on the Friday after the Sunday
when the fish started turning up, and it was pretty anodyne, frankly,
it just said they'd start an investigation into how quote
a quantity of biological material had washed up at Arana Sands.
Speaker 1 (06:51):
So that's not much of an answer at all.
Speaker 3 (06:52):
No, it's not so.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
I put some questions to the EPA and they provided
a little more detail. They said that there had been
unusually worn over recent months, and there had been a
proliferation of pest species that can irritate salmon gills. But
the thing that appears to be actually killing the fish
is something called reck Rickettsia, which is a bacteria. It
appears to have broken out in one or more pens
(07:16):
and quickly spread, And according to the EPA, the particular
strain of this bacteria that's affecting the salmon is endemic
to Australia, and for that reason they say it's not
a danger to native species. But opponents of the industry
aren't so sure about that, whether it is in fact
an endemic species, and in any case, whether having these
(07:38):
millions upon millions of salmon there as a sort of
pull potentially of the bacteria couldn't still lead to deaths
among native species. The other that they confirmed was that
the companies were dumping large quantities of dead fish into landfills,
which is significant because in the usual course of events,
when there are deaths in the fish pens, the dead
(08:00):
fish get turned into either pet food or fertilizer. But
in this case there were clearly too many for that purpose,
so they had to go to the last resort, which
was just dumping them.
Speaker 1 (08:11):
What do we know about the scale of his frozen
die off?
Speaker 3 (08:14):
It's huge.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
The peak body for the Tasmanian salmon industry, which is
called Salmon Tasmania, I found actually more forthcoming than the EPA.
I spoke to its CEO, Luke Martin, and he confirmed
that they were dealing with, and I'm quoting him here,
unprecedented mortalities in the southeast. He didn't give exact numbers,
but he did say that the normal, as he put
(08:36):
at some immortality rate for salmon farms was about five percent.
Given the scale of production in Tasmania, that equates to
several thousand tons of dead fish. Activists, not surprisingly, have
been more keen to hazard estimates of the numbers. The
Bob Brown Foundation's Alistair Allen, who's not only a campaigner
(08:58):
for Bob Brown Foundation but also a Greens candidate for
another seat in Tasmania. He said that industry sources had
told him that two million fish had died in just
a couple of weeks. I also spoke to Peter George.
The boat that his contact worked on had pumped seventy
tons of dead fish and fish parts and that it
was just one of thirteen pump boats working in the
(09:20):
area at the time. So based on those numbers he estimates,
you know, hundreds of thousands of fish were being removed
on a daily basis.
Speaker 3 (09:27):
These are astonishing.
Speaker 1 (09:28):
Numbers after the break the political.
Speaker 4 (09:33):
Wash up, Hi Ruby Jones. Here, seven am tells stories
that need to be told. Our journalism is founded on
trust and independence, and now we're increasing our coverage. Every
Saturday until the election, will bring you an extra episode
to break down the biggest political moments of the week.
If you enjoy seven Am, the best way you can
(09:55):
support us is by making a contribution at seven am
podcast dot com dot are you forward slash support. Thanks
for listening and supporting our work.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
Mike, this is all happening in the lead up to
an election, and the Prime Minister Anthony Albanez he visited
Tasmania to cement his support for the industry, even enjoying
a plate of grilled salmon at a community barbecue. So
how is all this playing out politically.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
Well, first observation, exquisitely bad timing on Albanizzi's part. I
suppose you couldn't foresee that there would be this kind
of catastrophe in the industry. But you're right it is
becoming a big political issue in a couple of ways.
We're talking about two electorates here, quite different electorates. There's Franklin,
a large progressive cohort there. I think the Greens at
(10:40):
the last election got fifteen sixteen seventeen percent of the
vote and Labor holds it by what appears on paper
to be a reasonably comfortable margin. And of course there
Peter George is running as a community independent against Julie Collins,
Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry.
Speaker 5 (10:57):
We're getting a two party system that has delivered an
environmental mess, has delivered us with an environmental crisis, and
has delivered us a cost of living crisis.
Speaker 2 (11:08):
Peter George could potentially have been a threat to Julie Collins.
Even before this, the fish started washing up on the beaches,
one would have to think that his vote probably goes
up proportionate to the number of fish that turn up
riding on the beaches. That's the southeast. Then we have
Bradden up in the Northwest, which is a much more
conservative seat. It's currently held by a Liberal member, but
(11:28):
he's retiring at the election and the government is hoping
they can flip it. They're running a pretty high profile candidate,
Anne Urkhardt, who's currently a Senator for Tasmania. She's hoping
she can make the shift to the lower House. And
of course Albanezi was in Bradden tucking into the salmon
and potatoes even as the fish were turning up dead
(11:50):
on the beaches. In the Southeast, he was announcing a
further two point nine million dollars in funding for a
captive breeding program for the more Ga skate, which is
in danger of extinction. And of course one of the
key reasons why the more g and skate is endangered
is because of salmon farming in Macrori Harbor. Essentially, there
were two principal problems affecting the skate. One was low
(12:14):
oxygen levels and the other was large quantities of fish pooh,
which both affect the skates which feed at the bottom
of the harbor. So the government has been spending money
not only on this captive breeding program, but also on
technology that pumps what they call microbottles into the water
to try and lift the oxygen levels. And in total,
so far this support has cost thirty seven million dollars.
(12:38):
And to be fair, there's some evidence that there's been
a bit of success. A recent study found that oxygen
levels had increased and that the skate population had stabilized,
although still at pretty low numbers. But anyway, Albanizi was
down there and he was portraying the thing as a
win win situation. The skate was being protected, as were
local jobs in the industry.
Speaker 1 (13:00):
The Commonwealth money subsidizing this industry. So how many jobs
are we talking about here.
Speaker 2 (13:04):
Mike, Not a lot, About seventy If you want to
divide the amount of money the government's kicked in by
the number of employees, that's roughly half a million dollars
per employee. So anyway, I spoke to Andrew Wilke. He
represents another seat in Tasmania, the seat of Clark. He
makes the point that Macquarie Harbor, where Escape lives only,
it counts for about ten percent of Tasmanis salmon production,
(13:26):
five percent of the jobs. He sees what Albanize he's
doing as purely an exercise in shoring up Labour's hopes
of winning the seat.
Speaker 1 (13:35):
So there's a calculation here that if the Albanezy government
is wanting to win seats in Tasmania, they need to
appease this industry. But do you think it will pay off,
particularly when people are seeing these images of rotten fish
washing up on beaches everywhere.
Speaker 2 (13:48):
Well, the government is certainly making the political calculation here
that there's a seat to be picked up in the
northwest of Tasmania, but it could potentially cost them the
seed of Franklin. When I asked ull Collins office for
a comment about the outbreak about this crisis unfolding in
her electorate in the salmon industry, a spokesperson declined to
(14:09):
talk about it. The only thing they would say was
they stressed that salmon farming is regulated by the Tasmanian
State government. One might have thought that as the local member.
If not as Fisheries Minister Collins would take an interest,
but apparently not. There is a bigger picture here too,
I think a global picture, and that is that around
(14:29):
the world we see offshore salmon farming starting to look
like a sunset industry. You know, across the world, from
Chile to Scotland, they've experienced big, big disease outbreaks. In
the United States, Washington State has just banned salmon farms
because of the environmental damage they do. And all around
the world there's money going into actual onshore fish farming,
(14:51):
you know, which can be done and apparently billions of
dollars of being spent on it, and that avoids a
lot of the environmental damage that is done by offshore farming. Frankly,
it's particularly dirty industry, huge amounts of fish poo apart
from anything else, and I think it may be losing
its social license.
Speaker 1 (15:09):
Mike, I hope we haven't put too many people off
their breakfast.
Speaker 6 (15:11):
Thanks for your time, Thanks mate, cheers.
Speaker 1 (15:24):
Also in the news today, an extra fifty billing urgent
care clinics will be in operation by mid twenty twenty
six if Labour wins reelection. The government has announced. The
plan will cost six hundred and forty four million dollars
and deliver extra clinics in every state and territory, with
eighty percent of Australians being able to access one within
a twenty minute drive. At the last election, Laborer announced
(15:46):
fifty new urgent care clinics, but went on to open
eighty seven at this term of government, and Britain will
lend Ukraine four point five billion dollars to spend on
military procurement, with the money coming from the profits of
frozen Russian assets. British primary to Kirs Starman met with
Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelenski over the weekend to design the
deal and emphasize his country's ongoing support for Ukraine. The
(16:08):
show of support comes after an explosive meeting at the
White House on Friday where US President Trump and Vice
President j d Vance accuse the Ukrainian president of not
being grateful for their support. We'll have a full breakdown
of that meeting and the implications for the war in
Ukraine on seven AM tomorrow. I'm Daniel James. This is
seven am. Thanks for listening.
So Mike, to start with, can you tell me what
the locals in southeast Tasmania discovered recently?
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Well, it was about nine p thirty on Sunday morning,
a little over two weeks ago when Jess Coglin, who's
a campaigner with Neighbors of Fish Farming or NOF, she
got a phone call and it was a local calling
her to say that thousands of these oily, stinky globs
had washed up on for Ona Sands Beach, which is
about sixty kilometers south of Hobart. The caller suspected it
(00:27):
was fish food from one of the salmon farming pens
in the area. You know, there are scores of them,
and he said that his dogs as well as flocks
of guggles were quote in a frenzy eating it. So anyway,
Jess grabbed Ajar hastened down to the beach to grab
a sample and see for herself this massive amount of
gobs that were scattered along the entire length of the beach.
(00:48):
And she collected samples, intending to send them off to
the state's epa inter alia. She rang a contact of
hers who was a retired diver and he said, break
open some of the larger clumps, and she did, and
inside was pink flesh and fish scale. So it wasn't
just fatty stuff, it was actual chunks of fish.
Speaker 3 (01:07):
She realized pretty quickly.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
I guess that it wasn't fish food, obviously, it was
dead rotting salmon.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
That's just gross spike.
Speaker 3 (01:16):
Well it is. There were thousands of these things.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
There were small blobs of fatty stuff and there were
larger chunks that were actual fish flesh.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
From Schwartz Media on Daniel James. This is seven am.
Warmer waters, disease and antibiotics have pushed tasimani As salmon
farms into crisis. But it's not just an environmental disaster.
It's a political one. Now, with an election looming, the
(01:47):
Albaneze government is pouring millions into salmon farming, hoping to
save jobs and votes in the process, even as rotting
fish littered the shore. Today National correspondent for the Saturday paper,
Mark Second on what is happening in Tasmanian waters and
why it might impact the upcoming election. It's Monday, March three. Mike,
(02:20):
You've been looking into the salmon industry in Tasmania and
how it's likely to impact the upcoming election, So can
you tell me what you specifically set out to investigate?
Speaker 2 (02:29):
Well, funny story. I actually started to look at the
Albanesi government's recent announcements of funding to prop up salmon
farming at Macquarie Harbor on the west coast of Tasmania,
where Labor is trying to win the seat of Bratton,
but events very quickly redirected mealswhere down to the southeast
corner of the state and to the seat of Franklin.
The southeast of Tasmania produces the bulk of farmed salmon
(02:51):
in in Tasmania and in the nation. It's a billion
dollar industry. It produces roughly eight hundred thousand tons of
fish a year. We hear a lot about Macquarie Harbor
because of the threat of extinction of the more Gan skate,
but it only counts for about ten percent of production.
The southeast has hundreds of pens floating around holding millions
upon millions of fish. And the seat that I wound
(03:14):
up being more interested in is the seat of Franklin,
which is one of the few labor held seats being
targeted by a climate two hundred in this election. Mostly
they go after liberal health seats, and Franklin is also
the only one held by a current cabinet minister, that
is Julie Collins, the Minister for Agriculture and importantly Fisheries,
and against her is running a number of candidates, including
(03:37):
a Green but the interesting one is Peter George. He's
got a bit of a profile. He's a former senior
reporter for the ABC. A lot of people would remember
him from Four Corners and Foreign correspondent. He's also the
founder of a group called Neighbors of Fish Farming, which
is a group that's been campaigning against the industrial fish
farming in Tasmania for about a decade and that's essentially
(03:59):
what's going to be George's pitch running as an independent
for this election. That was one of the interesting things
that shifted my focus. But the bigger one was that
I started hearing about a bizarre and frankly gross thing
that was happening on some beaches in the southeast in
the electorate of Franklin.
Speaker 4 (04:15):
A shoreline discovery causing.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
A stinct There were chunks of what appeared to be
salmon flesh partially broken down at very very well.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
So it became pretty clear pretty quickly that this was
dead rotting salmon, So where were these globs coming from?
Speaker 2 (04:32):
They're the result of what happens when salmon die. They
sink to the bottom of the pens, they rot, and
then their flesh an oil rise back up to the surface,
and that appears to be what happened here. As to
where they came from, Jess Coglan and her other activist
friends suspected they came from a farm being operated by
Huon Aquaculture, which is one of the two big producers
(04:55):
of Atlantic salmon in Australia, and sure enough, later that
day workers from Huon Aquaculture turned up at the beach
and began cleaning it up.
Speaker 3 (05:03):
Although she says they didn't actually identify themselves.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
They weren't in uniform or anything, and they wouldn't answer
any questions that the locals put to them. But it
wasn't just Forona's hands. Remains continued washing up on other
beaches too, both on the mainland side of the channel
and also on Bruney Island, which is just across the
other side of the channel, and there employees from the
other big aquaculture company, Tassel, were witnessed cleaning up the mess.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
Right, So there might have been something bigger going on
here than just an accident one particular seven farm.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
It would appear to be the case, and it would
appear that it wasn't just fish in one of the
scores of pens that doted the channel. It was more
widespread than that. But even before then there were signs
that something major was going wrong, because a week prior,
hugh On Agriculture had revealed that it was using antibiotics
at one of its sites near Bruney Island, and then
(05:58):
on February fourteen, our Brown Foundation released drone footage of
hundreds of dead and decomposing fish being vacuum pumped from
a pen well to the north near the Tasmanian Peninsula.
By then was pretty obvious that some kind of major
incident had happened, probably a disease outbreak. But for a week,
maybe longer, neither the Tasmanian Environmental Protection Agency nor the
(06:23):
companies involved, you know, provided much in the way of
detail about what was happening.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
So when did we start getting answers.
Speaker 3 (06:30):
Mike Well, it took a while.
Speaker 2 (06:32):
Under pressure from environmentalists and the media, the Tasmanian EPA
put out a statement on the Friday after the Sunday
when the fish started turning up, and it was pretty anodyne, frankly,
it just said they'd start an investigation into how quote
a quantity of biological material had washed up at Arana Sands.
Speaker 1 (06:51):
So that's not much of an answer at all.
Speaker 3 (06:52):
No, it's not so.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
I put some questions to the EPA and they provided
a little more detail. They said that there had been
unusually worn over recent months, and there had been a
proliferation of pest species that can irritate salmon gills. But
the thing that appears to be actually killing the fish
is something called reck Rickettsia, which is a bacteria. It
appears to have broken out in one or more pens
(07:16):
and quickly spread, And according to the EPA, the particular
strain of this bacteria that's affecting the salmon is endemic
to Australia, and for that reason they say it's not
a danger to native species. But opponents of the industry
aren't so sure about that, whether it is in fact
an endemic species, and in any case, whether having these
(07:38):
millions upon millions of salmon there as a sort of
pull potentially of the bacteria couldn't still lead to deaths
among native species. The other that they confirmed was that
the companies were dumping large quantities of dead fish into landfills,
which is significant because in the usual course of events,
when there are deaths in the fish pens, the dead
(08:00):
fish get turned into either pet food or fertilizer. But
in this case there were clearly too many for that purpose,
so they had to go to the last resort, which
was just dumping them.
Speaker 1 (08:11):
What do we know about the scale of his frozen
die off?
Speaker 3 (08:14):
It's huge.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
The peak body for the Tasmanian salmon industry, which is
called Salmon Tasmania, I found actually more forthcoming than the EPA.
I spoke to its CEO, Luke Martin, and he confirmed
that they were dealing with, and I'm quoting him here,
unprecedented mortalities in the southeast. He didn't give exact numbers,
but he did say that the normal, as he put
(08:36):
at some immortality rate for salmon farms was about five percent.
Given the scale of production in Tasmania, that equates to
several thousand tons of dead fish. Activists, not surprisingly, have
been more keen to hazard estimates of the numbers. The
Bob Brown Foundation's Alistair Allen, who's not only a campaigner
(08:58):
for Bob Brown Foundation but also a Greens candidate for
another seat in Tasmania. He said that industry sources had
told him that two million fish had died in just
a couple of weeks. I also spoke to Peter George.
The boat that his contact worked on had pumped seventy
tons of dead fish and fish parts and that it
was just one of thirteen pump boats working in the
(09:20):
area at the time. So based on those numbers he estimates,
you know, hundreds of thousands of fish were being removed
on a daily basis.
Speaker 3 (09:27):
These are astonishing.
Speaker 1 (09:28):
Numbers after the break the political.
Speaker 4 (09:33):
Wash up, Hi Ruby Jones. Here, seven am tells stories
that need to be told. Our journalism is founded on
trust and independence, and now we're increasing our coverage. Every
Saturday until the election, will bring you an extra episode
to break down the biggest political moments of the week.
If you enjoy seven Am, the best way you can
(09:55):
support us is by making a contribution at seven am
podcast dot com dot are you forward slash support. Thanks
for listening and supporting our work.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
Mike, this is all happening in the lead up to
an election, and the Prime Minister Anthony Albanez he visited
Tasmania to cement his support for the industry, even enjoying
a plate of grilled salmon at a community barbecue. So
how is all this playing out politically.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
Well, first observation, exquisitely bad timing on Albanizzi's part. I
suppose you couldn't foresee that there would be this kind
of catastrophe in the industry. But you're right it is
becoming a big political issue in a couple of ways.
We're talking about two electorates here, quite different electorates. There's Franklin,
a large progressive cohort there. I think the Greens at
(10:40):
the last election got fifteen sixteen seventeen percent of the
vote and Labor holds it by what appears on paper
to be a reasonably comfortable margin. And of course there
Peter George is running as a community independent against Julie Collins,
Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry.
Speaker 5 (10:57):
We're getting a two party system that has delivered an
environmental mess, has delivered us with an environmental crisis, and
has delivered us a cost of living crisis.
Speaker 2 (11:08):
Peter George could potentially have been a threat to Julie Collins.
Even before this, the fish started washing up on the beaches,
one would have to think that his vote probably goes
up proportionate to the number of fish that turn up
riding on the beaches. That's the southeast. Then we have
Bradden up in the Northwest, which is a much more
conservative seat. It's currently held by a Liberal member, but
(11:28):
he's retiring at the election and the government is hoping
they can flip it. They're running a pretty high profile candidate,
Anne Urkhardt, who's currently a Senator for Tasmania. She's hoping
she can make the shift to the lower House. And
of course Albanezi was in Bradden tucking into the salmon
and potatoes even as the fish were turning up dead
(11:50):
on the beaches. In the Southeast, he was announcing a
further two point nine million dollars in funding for a
captive breeding program for the more Ga skate, which is
in danger of extinction. And of course one of the
key reasons why the more g and skate is endangered
is because of salmon farming in Macrori Harbor. Essentially, there
were two principal problems affecting the skate. One was low
(12:14):
oxygen levels and the other was large quantities of fish pooh,
which both affect the skates which feed at the bottom
of the harbor. So the government has been spending money
not only on this captive breeding program, but also on
technology that pumps what they call microbottles into the water
to try and lift the oxygen levels. And in total,
so far this support has cost thirty seven million dollars.
(12:38):
And to be fair, there's some evidence that there's been
a bit of success. A recent study found that oxygen
levels had increased and that the skate population had stabilized,
although still at pretty low numbers. But anyway, Albanizi was
down there and he was portraying the thing as a
win win situation. The skate was being protected, as were
local jobs in the industry.
Speaker 1 (13:00):
The Commonwealth money subsidizing this industry. So how many jobs
are we talking about here.
Speaker 2 (13:04):
Mike, Not a lot, About seventy If you want to
divide the amount of money the government's kicked in by
the number of employees, that's roughly half a million dollars
per employee. So anyway, I spoke to Andrew Wilke. He
represents another seat in Tasmania, the seat of Clark. He
makes the point that Macquarie Harbor, where Escape lives only,
it counts for about ten percent of Tasmanis salmon production,
(13:26):
five percent of the jobs. He sees what Albanize he's
doing as purely an exercise in shoring up Labour's hopes
of winning the seat.
Speaker 1 (13:35):
So there's a calculation here that if the Albanezy government
is wanting to win seats in Tasmania, they need to
appease this industry. But do you think it will pay off,
particularly when people are seeing these images of rotten fish
washing up on beaches everywhere.
Speaker 2 (13:48):
Well, the government is certainly making the political calculation here
that there's a seat to be picked up in the
northwest of Tasmania, but it could potentially cost them the
seed of Franklin. When I asked ull Collins office for
a comment about the outbreak about this crisis unfolding in
her electorate in the salmon industry, a spokesperson declined to
(14:09):
talk about it. The only thing they would say was
they stressed that salmon farming is regulated by the Tasmanian
State government. One might have thought that as the local member.
If not as Fisheries Minister Collins would take an interest,
but apparently not. There is a bigger picture here too,
I think a global picture, and that is that around
(14:29):
the world we see offshore salmon farming starting to look
like a sunset industry. You know, across the world, from
Chile to Scotland, they've experienced big, big disease outbreaks. In
the United States, Washington State has just banned salmon farms
because of the environmental damage they do. And all around
the world there's money going into actual onshore fish farming,
(14:51):
you know, which can be done and apparently billions of
dollars of being spent on it, and that avoids a
lot of the environmental damage that is done by offshore farming. Frankly,
it's particularly dirty industry, huge amounts of fish poo apart
from anything else, and I think it may be losing
its social license.
Speaker 1 (15:09):
Mike, I hope we haven't put too many people off
their breakfast.
Speaker 6 (15:11):
Thanks for your time, Thanks mate, cheers.
Speaker 1 (15:24):
Also in the news today, an extra fifty billing urgent
care clinics will be in operation by mid twenty twenty
six if Labour wins reelection. The government has announced. The
plan will cost six hundred and forty four million dollars
and deliver extra clinics in every state and territory, with
eighty percent of Australians being able to access one within
a twenty minute drive. At the last election, Laborer announced
(15:46):
fifty new urgent care clinics, but went on to open
eighty seven at this term of government, and Britain will
lend Ukraine four point five billion dollars to spend on
military procurement, with the money coming from the profits of
frozen Russian assets. British primary to Kirs Starman met with
Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelenski over the weekend to design the
deal and emphasize his country's ongoing support for Ukraine. The
(16:08):
show of support comes after an explosive meeting at the
White House on Friday where US President Trump and Vice
President j d Vance accuse the Ukrainian president of not
being grateful for their support. We'll have a full breakdown
of that meeting and the implications for the war in
Ukraine on seven AM tomorrow. I'm Daniel James. This is
seven am. Thanks for listening.
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
Cardiac Cowboys
The heart was always off-limits to surgeons. Cutting into it spelled instant death for the patient. That is, until a ragtag group of doctors scattered across the Midwest and Texas decided to throw out the rule book. Working in makeshift laboratories and home garages, using medical devices made from scavenged machine parts and beer tubes, these men and women invented the field of open heart surgery. Odds are, someone you know is alive because of them. So why has history left them behind? Presented by Chris Pine, CARDIAC COWBOYS tells the gripping true story behind the birth of heart surgery, and the young, Greatest Generation doctors who made it happen. For years, they competed and feuded, racing to be the first, the best, and the most prolific. Some appeared on the cover of Time Magazine, operated on kings and advised presidents. Others ended up disgraced, penniless, and convicted of felonies. Together, they ignited a revolution in medicine, and changed the world.