Federal Environment and Water Minister Murray Watt has used recent changes to national nature laws to allow salmon farming to continue in Macquarie Harbour.

This is exactly what Minister Watt’s department has previously warned was “almost certain” to be “catastrophic” for the endangered Maugean skate. This is a World Heritage-recognised species that lives in World Heritage-listed Macquarie Harbour.

Just before the federal election, Labor and the Coalition teamed up to weaken nature laws in a desperate effort to chase votes in Tasmania. The law that was rammed through parliament removes democratic rights to appeal government decisions and increases the likelihood that native species will become extinct. They stop anyone from local community groups to federal government ministers from reviewing certain projects such as coal mines, gas exploration, land clearing or other destructive practices.

The Bob Brown Foundation has announced that it will challenge the minister’s decision.

Images of baby skates swimming in tanks are promoted by the government and the salmon industry to give the impression that action is being taken.

Unfortunately, that is not the case. The two adult skates that have been held captive for 18 months now have not … how to put it politely … delivered. They have not become parents. Instead, the images you may have seen are of baby skates that have hatched in captivity, all from eggs fertilised in the wild, as highlighted by Environment Tasmania.

What is actually happening is a captive rearing program.

That means, if the skate becomes extinct in the wild, that’s it, it’s all over.

There is a Recovery Team for the Maugean skate. It has been running for two years now but has published nothing publicly since November 2024. Apparently it met a fortnight ago and in February this year, but … silence. One of the Recovery Team’s key actions is to investigate reducing salmon and ocean trout stocks in Macquarie Harbour. We know there has been no reduction in farmed fish. Nor is there a plan being developed to transition the industry onto land, as is being done elsewhere.

What about the critical habitat mapping for the skate – has that been completed?

Or assessing environmental remediation options in addition to the industry’s oxygenation trial that is only aimed at offsetting the industry’s drawdown by farmed fish?

These actions were agreed to by all Recovery Team members, including the salmon industry, but have they been delivered? Tasmanians have a right to know.

Removing farmed fish from Macquarie Harbour is consistent with the Tasmanian Parliamentary Inquiry’s recommendation to prioritise stopping fish farming in sensitive, sheltered and biodiverse inshore waters. Australia Institute polling research shows seven in 10 Tasmanians support this recommendation. Our research also finds a majority of Australians across all voting intentions (except One Nation) support stopping fish farming in areas where they are putting the Maugean skate at risk of extinction.

This would also be consistent with Australian government advice to ‘eliminate or significantly reduce’ farmed fish biomass before the summer of 2023-24.

Macquarie Harbour is the Maugean skate’s only home on Earth and the public has been completely left in the dark for nine months now about what is being done to prevent its extinction.

Tasmanians are sick and tired of government secrecy, whether it’s about Marinus, the proposed AFL stadium, unfinished Integrity Commission investigations into ministers, or the damage caused by the salmon industry.

Tasmanians have just elected independent anti-salmon campaigner Peter George with the third highest vote in the state. It seems voters are also sick and tired of an industry that appears intent on destroying Tasmania’s waterways.