Anthony Albanese has promised to introduce legislation that will allow “sustainable salmon farming” to continue in Tasmania’s Macquarie Harbour, sparking anger from conversationists and researchers who urged for the local industry to be scaled back.
The promise, made in a letter to industry group Salmon Tasmania, came after years of lobbying for action in Macquarie Harbour to save the threatened Maugean skate from extinction.
The environment minister, Tanya Plibersek, had also been reconsidering the future of salmon farm licences in Macquarie Harbour after environment groups made a legal case that an industry expansion in 2012 had not been properly approved.
In the letter, the prime minister referenced a new report from the University of Tasmania’s Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies (Imas) which shows the Maugean skate population is “consistent with the long term average as at 2014”.
Albanese said the report noted positive signs with oxygenation efforts – with reduced levels of dissolved oxygen across the harbour posing the main threats to the species.
“But even with this new and positive data, it is clear to me the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act – introduced 25 years ago – does not allow for a commonsense solution on an acceptable timeline,” the prime minister said in the letter, seen by Guardian Australia.
“I can confirm that the Australian government will introduce legislation to ensure appropriate environmental laws are in place to continue sustainable salmon farming in Macquarie Harbour.”
The Imas report notes that Maugean skate numbers seem to be improving, but also highlights a “critical need for continued monitoring” of the ancient ray-like species.
“A recent environmental DNA study … has demonstrated that the vast majority, if not all, of the current population of Maugean skate live only in Macquarie Harbour,” the report reads.
The prime minister’s promise has been welcomed by the industry and the Tasmanian Liberal and Labor parties, who both back the $1.3bn industry.
But the Australian Marine Conservation Society (AMCS) said that – in response to the Imas report – that a slight improvement in the Maugean skate population would not save it from extinction. It said it was especially true if there was another extreme weather event in Macquarie Harbour in the next 10 years.
AMCS shark expert Dr Leonardo Guida said the new report shows a “strong correlation between increased salmon farming intensity and a drop in estimated Maugean skate numbers”.
“The fate of the skate literally rises and falls alongside salmon production,” he said.
“The skates caught in 2024 were mostly old adults that will not be around much longer given they live to around 10-12 years, and there hasn’t been enough time to show that the uptick is solely from juveniles surviving to breeding age.
“The scientists acknowledge huge uncertainty in the data from animals caught in 2023 and 2024 that shows something has happened that’s making the skates easier to catch. Without knowing exactly what happened, we’re unfortunately no longer comparing apples with apples from previous years.”
Tasmanian Greens senator Nick McKim said Australia’s environmental laws were already too weak and to “water them down even further to underpin corporate profits is an outrage and a betrayal”.
The director of The Australia Institute in Tasmania, Eloise Carr, said special legislation to protect farming operations in the harbour is “likely to condemn the Maugean skate to extinction should not be rushed through”.
The Tasmanian premier, Jeremy Rockliff, welcomed the announcement and said he “won’t rest until salmon jobs are protected by law”.
“While today is an important step, this could have been achieved long ago, and we will continue to do all we can to support our workers across all industries,” he said.
The state’s Labor leader, Dean Winter, said Albanese’s letter demonstrates “an irrefutable case that salmon farming and the Maugean skate can coexist”.
Macquarie Harbour produces only about 13% of Tasmanian salmon, but industry supporters argue it is an important hub and employer on the state’s remote west coast.
Prof Jayson Semmens, a co-author of the Imas report, said researchers were “cautiously optimistic” about the Maugean skate population but that “there is still a long way to go”.
“Only continued monitoring of the Maugean skate population in Macquarie Harbour will allow us to know the long-term trajectory of recovery of this endangered species,” he said.
A conservation report by the government’s threatened species scientific committee last year said the skate should be considered critically endangered, estimating there were between 40 and 120 adult skates remaining in the wild.
The move comes after Albanese last year vetoed a deal Plibersek had struck to support her nature positive legislation.
