The Albanese government rushed through legislation to ensure salmon farming could continue in Tasmania’s Macquarie Harbour last year shortly after receiving advice warning of “substantial new information” about the industry’s environmental impact.
Documents released under freedom of information laws show the environment department advised the government in late 2024 that it should revoke a 2012 decision that allowed salmon farming to expand in the vast harbour on the state’s west coast.
The documents reveal the then environment minister, Tanya Plibersek, was told the expansion was having a significant impact on the endangered Maugean skate – an ancient ray-like species – and the Tasmanian wilderness world heritage area, which includes parts of the harbour.
Officials recommended Plibersek overturn a decision by the Gillard Labor government that the salmon farm expansion did not need a full assessment under national environment law, and order a fresh inquiry that could have scaled back or paused farming in the harbour.
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They found there was new information that showed salmon farming was reducing dissolved oxygen levels and this was affecting the Maugean skate’s habitat, behaviour, physiology and population. It said the reduced oxygen levels were also likely to be affecting the natural heritage values of the world heritage area.
The advice was a response to a formal request in 2023 from three environment organisations that the government reconsider the 2012 decision. But Labor rejected the department’s recommendation, and introduced legislation to limit when third parties not directly involved in a development application could request that a decision be reconsidered.
The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, told the three salmon companies operating in Tasmania the changes would ensure there were “appropriate environmental laws” to “continue sustainable salmon farming”. The bill was supported by the opposition and passed in March 2025.
Plibersek’s successor, Murray Watt, later announced that the reconsideration request lodged by the Australia Institute, the Bob Brown Foundation and the Environmental Defenders Office had been rejected.
Tasmanian Greens senator, Peter Whish-Wilson, said the documents – which were released to the former senator Rex Patrick after a fight in the administrative review tribunal – showed the government does not care about the environment.
“The shameless self-serving actions of the Albanese government and its blatant disregard of expert scientific advice from within its own environment department is galling,” Whish-Wilson said. “Not only did the Albanese government ignore departmental advice on the urgent need to rein in toxic salmon farms from polluting Macquarie Harbour, it made a disgracefully calculated move to introduce laws to protect the dirty industry.”
A government spokesperson said the department advice was “from a single point in time under a legislative framework that is no longer in place”. They said the government wanted “to see a sustainable salmon industry that supports workers and their families, while protecting the environment”.
But Eloise Carr, a consultant and campaigner against Tasmanian salmon farming, said the industry had never faced an environmental impact assessment under national law and “it’s time that happened”.
Alistair Allan of the Bob Brown Foundation said the documents showed that Albanese had ignored department advice and scientific evidence. “Prime minister Albanese chose to completely undermine and rewrite Australia’s environmental law rather than enact his duty to protect endangered Australian wildlife,” he said.
The government spokesperson said it would be inappropriate to comment further as the decision was the subject of a federal court challenge by the organisation NWTAS for Clean Oceans, which is opposed to salmon farms.
The Maugean skate is found only in Macquarie Harbour and has been listed as endangered since 2004. Concern about its plight escalated in 2024 when a government scientific committee reported that numbers were “extremely low” and recommended that fish farming should be scaled back or removed to save the species.
A separate report by the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies later said surveys suggested the skate population may have recovered to 2014 levels, but remained endangered and stressed the need for continued monitoring.
