Article by Sarah Ison & Geoff Chambers, courtesy of The Australian.
Anthony Albanese’s left-faction lieutenants have met with Tasmanian community and industry leaders concerned that Tanya Plibersek could shut down the state’s $1.36bn salmon industry, as ALP figures say the Environment Minister is ready to “play the long game” in her political rivalry with the Prime Minister.
The Australian understands Mr Albanese and senior cabinet ministers, including Katy Gallagher, Murray Watt, Don Farrell, Penny Wong and Malarndirri McCarthy, have been directly engaged to help neutralise the political fallout linked to Ms Plibersek’s drawn-out environmental reviews into the endangered skate fish in Macquarie Harbour.
Left-faction Tasman¬ian senator Anne Urquhart, who is running for Labor in the swing seat of Braddon where thousands of salmon workers live, has recruited senior government members to consider solutions to provide certainty for the industry to shore-up votes ahead of next year’s election.
The looming decisions, which could devastate the aquaculture industry, have sparked concerns from Liberal and Labor Tasmanian leaders, as well as about 50 per cent of residents who told an EMRS poll they opposed an industry shutdown in the harbour, which is six-times the size of Sydney Harbour and the country’s second largest.
Peter Heard, research and development manager for Tassal’s Channel farming area, is among the salmon workers whose livelihoods are in the balance and whose families face losing an industry that has been part of their community for generations.
“My father worked in the industry and my son Matt started about three years ago, working as a farm hand. My other son works for a contracting business where 99 per cent of the work is fabrication work – repairs to our boats mostly – as well,” Mr Heard said.
“Salmon is a very big employer in this area. It’s is the biggest employer south of Hobart, and one of the biggest in the state, providing lots of regional employment and opportunities for local people.”
The move comes as senior Labor sources say Mr Albanese made a mistake putting his left-faction rival in the environment portfolio after Labor’s 2022 election win, a move Ms Plibersek admitted to The Australian at the time was a “surprise”.
“She’s a polished performer and she knows it’s a long game … this has been going on (with Mr Albanese) for 25 years,” one Labor MP said.
Another Labor figure said Mr Albanese was continuing to “punish” Ms Plibersek by putting her in the politically loaded environment and water portfolios despite her being an inner-city MP.
“There are definitely those (in the party) who dislike the way this is playing out and there’s that concern it will impact the primary vote,” they said.
Despite holding the education and women portfolios at the 2022 election, Ms Plibersek was stripped of the roles by Mr ¬Albanese.
Ms Plibersek, whose seat of Sydney neighbours the Prime Minister’s electorate of Grayndler, backed Bill Shorten over Mr Albanese in the 2013 leadership contest and was Mr Shorten’s deputy leader for six years.
Questions on the ongoing rivalry were raised last week after Mr Albanese intervened in a deal between Ms Plibersek and the Greens for Labor’s Nature Positive law reforms, with one senior Labor MP describing the Environment Minister as “collateral” in the Prime Minister’s desire to be seen as withstanding pressure from Adam Bandt.
“The conventional theory is you have to make some tough decisions to look like we weren’t being led by the Greens,” the Labor MP said.
“So anyone who wants to run an argument of ‘Oh it’s a Greens-Labor (Coalition)’, well Albanese just put a pen through it and said ‘no’. And Tanya (Plibersek) really was a bit of collateral damage.”
Mr Albanese on Monday “absolutely” denied any internal feud with Ms Plibersek and attacked scrutiny over why nature-positive laws were shelved as “extraordinary”.
Ms Plibersek has come under pressure from both green activists and conservatives over various environmental decisions, including Coalition attacks following her intervention in the $1bn NSW Blayney goldmine.
The 55-year-old faces significant pressure over the lengthy delays related to the two reviews linked to the Maugean skate.
One of the reviews is reconsidering a 2012 Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act determination by the then-Labor government that approved large-scale salmon farming in Macquarie Harbour.
A separate decision by the Threatened Species Scientific Committee on whether the skate should be listed as “critically endangered” was recently delayed by 12 months.
A spokeswoman for Ms Plibersek on Sunday said the Environment Minister “will listen to the science and follow the law, as she is required to do”.
The EPBC review was ordered following representations from the Bob Brown Foundation, Environmental Defenders’ Office and the Australia Institute.
In the face of concerns over the future of the salmon industry in Tasmania, a raft of Labor ministers have been flown into the state to meet affected workers.
Senator Gallagher – a close ally of Mr Albanese – visited Strahan in late October, where the salmon industry supports one-in-two jobs. Mr Albanese, who last month announced $28m to improve water quality in Macquarie Harbour, is understood to be keen for a solution and is expected to visit Braddon next month.
He has previously flagged legal issues with intervening and stated it was Ms Plibersek’s decision to make. Given the high political stakes, work is being done to determine if there is an outcome that would avoid a court battle with environmental activists.
Peter Dutton visited Strahan with Tasmanian Premier Jeremy Rockliff – a strong supporter of the salmon industry – in January, and in August used a salmon workers rally in Devonport to promise a Coalition government would overturn any adverse decisions made by Ms Plibersek.
Tasmanian Labor leader Dean Winter on Friday lashed the delay from his federal counterparts, declaring “It’s time to make a decision”.