The salmon industry in Tasmania is out of control and regulators refuse to rein it in

The mass fish die-off is caused by an outbreak of bacteria that swept through industrial fish pens. Locals reported swimming into "chunks" of dead salmon, and blobs of fish fat are washing up on beaches. Disturbing photos and video of dead salmon floating belly-up in the water are reminiscent of the mass fish kill seen in the Murray Darling Basin in recent years. But this is worse. These are fish farmed for commercial purposes. The very least this industry should be able to do is keep its livestock alive.

The salmon industry in Tasmania must come clean about the scale of this disaster. But it also needs to assure Australians that not a single diseased fish will end up on Australian supermarket shelves or dinner plates.

Unfortunately, the industry and regulators are treating the mass fish die-offs as "business as usual". The salmon industry likes to claim it gets more scrutiny than on-land agriculture, but in practice it's the wild west. On land, an outbreak of an infectious disease can trigger the euthanisation of all livestock on an affected farm, as we've seen with avian flu.

In this case, some dead fish are being taken to the tip. But live fish are clearly sharing pens with dead and infected fish. Is the bacteria transferable or harmful to humans? Are diseased fish being processed for sale? Who knows, the EPA did not even bother to provide the public with an update about this disease outbreak all week. The salmon industry in Tasmania is out of control and regulators refuse to rein it in.

Apart from the mass fish die-off, these foreign-owned salmon farms are driving the endangered Maugean skate to extinction in Macquarie Harbour. How? The hundreds of thousands of fish being farmed in industrial pens produce a prodigious amount of waste. In plainer terms, they generate a lot of crap. The science could not be clearer. Fish farming in Macquarie Harbour is "almost certain" to have a "catastrophic" impact on Maugean skate, a stingray-like creature.

Fish farming is having the most detrimental impact on dissolved oxygen in the water, pushing the skate towards extinction due to lack of oxygen. The skate is recognised as one of the Gondwana-era natural values of Tasmania's Wilderness World Heritage Area. Its potential extinction carries global significance.

While the public is being treated with contempt by the salmon industry, the Prime Minister is rolling out the red carpet for industry.

Anthony Albanese obviously wants everyone to support Labor at the election, but especially those living in key marginal seats like Bass, Braddon and Lyons. His recent announcements are obviously designed to woo Tasmanian voters. He announced that he will introduce special laws to ensure the salmon industry can keep operating in Macquarie Harbour, bypassing national environment laws. Then, he promised up to $37 million in public subsidies to the salmon industry so it can keep operating in Macquarie Harbour.

That's $37 million in public money for Tasmanian salmon farms which sold more than $4 billion of fish since 2019 and have paid zero company tax, according to Australian Tax Office data. That's right, zero. Nada. Zip. Zilch. If you paid any tax since 2019, you paid more tax than Tasmania's salmon companies. Rotting fish, driving species to extinction and zero tax dollars. It's a death sentence for the skate, and a bum deal for Tasmanians and all taxpayers who contribute their fair share.

But it gets worse. Because all three major salmon companies operating in Tasmania are owned by foreign multinational corporations. Petuna is owned by a Japanese-New Zealand corporation. Tassal is owned by a major Canadian company. Huon is owned by JBS, a Brazilian corporation infamous for corruption. JBS's bribery of Brazilian politicians played a big part in its expansion and its arrival in Tasmania. These are foreign-owned companies who pay no company tax here, while their profits go offshore.

This cowboy industry being given special treatment is particularly concerning. Not just because of the damage it's doing to Tasmania, but because of the precedent it sets for industry.

The NSW gambling industry used Memorandums of Understanding with politicians to prevent action on gambling harm for a decade. Albanese's pledge to change environmental laws if they do not suit polluters is just as disappointing. Changes to Australian law should come from public debate and democratic will, not deals to appease corporate interests ahead of an election.

We have environmental laws and regulations, weak as they are, for a good reason. Without them, companies would dump their toxic waste into our drinking water, destroy habitat for endangered species and generally trample the environment however they like to increase their profits. National environmental laws help protect our clean drinking water, clean air, and the protection of our native forests and the animals that live in them.

Our national environment laws are supposed to prevent endangered species, like the Maugean skate, from becoming extinct, like the Tasmanian tiger.

That's why the Australia Institute wrote to federal Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek with the science showing that salmon farming was driving the Maugean skate to extinction, triggering a review under national environment laws.

The new laws announced by the Prime Minister, set to be introduced in the next sitting of Parliament, are clearly an attempt to bypass the national environment laws. The salmon industry cannot rely on the Prime Minister's pledge to make Australia's environmental laws "appropriate" for the industry: it is Parliament that makes Australia's laws, and the Labor Party has not controlled both houses of Parliament since World War 2.

It's time to end salmon farming in Macquarie Harbour. Salmon can be farmed in lots of places. The Maugean skate's only home on Earth is in Macquarie Harbour. More importantly, it's time to end special political favours for industry, especially those who pay no tax. It's a cost-of-living crisis for God's sake.