Speaker 1: From Schwartz Media. I'm Ashlin McGee. This is seven am.
Speaker 1: If you've bought salmon for dinner, there's a pretty strong
Speaker 1: chance that came from Tasmania on the island state. Salmon's
Speaker 1: a billion dollar industry. And at mcquarie Harbor, where Booker
Speaker 1: Prize winning author Richard Flanagan grew up, the waterline is
Speaker 1: now dotted with these net pens and thrashing salmon. But
Speaker 1: the harbor is also home to a sixty million year
Speaker 1: old creature and it looks like it's about to be
Speaker 1: wiped off the face of the earth under the watch
Speaker 1: of the federal government. Today, writer and contributor to The
Speaker 1: Monthly Richard Flanagan on how corporate greed, political inaction, and
Speaker 1: our taste for salmon are all choking the Morghean skate.
Speaker 1: It's Monday, May twenty, Richard, Take me to mcquarie Harbor
Speaker 1: on Tazzy's West coast. When did you first visit? And
Speaker 1: what's it like there?
Speaker 2: Oh?
Speaker 3: There all my life. I actually grew up on the
Speaker 3: west coast in a little mining town called Rosebery, and
Speaker 3: it's a very large and remarkable inland waterway, about six
Speaker 3: times the size of Sydney Harbor. It has this remarkable
Speaker 3: human history and then it just feels a beautifully majestic
Speaker 3: and wild sort of place. It's bounded by rainforest all around,
Speaker 3: but you also have flowing into it from the east
Speaker 3: some of the most extraordinary wild rivers in the Southern Hemisphere,
Speaker 3: the Franklin and the Gordon Rivers. And in fact it's
Speaker 3: so unique an extraordinary that a third of it is
Speaker 3: actually designated as part of the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area.
Speaker 3: And one of the reasons for that is because it
Speaker 3: is the habitat of an extraordinary creature, the Morgan skate,
Speaker 3: which is part of the skate and rain shark family.
Speaker 3: Million years old, so it goes back to the time
Speaker 3: of the dinosaurs, and as far as we know, it
Speaker 3: is now only found in Macquarie Harbor. So it's a
Speaker 3: very evocative place, and it is a place that Europeans
Speaker 3: have tried to impose themselves on again and again, first
Speaker 3: with their penal systems, then with their minds. Are now
Speaker 3: in the slatest manifestation with their salmon farms.
Speaker 1: And so with the salmon farms there, what's it look
Speaker 1: like now.
Speaker 3: Well, the Mcquarie Harbor salmon farms account for about ten
Speaker 3: percent of Tasmanian's salmon production. More or less, salmon farming
Speaker 3: has been happening in Tasmania since the mid eighties, but
Speaker 3: it really only scaled up in the last twenty years.
Speaker 3: And since that expansion started, we have seen a catastrophical
Speaker 3: environmental collapse. In Macquarie Harbor. Salmon farming is the very
Speaker 3: worst form of factory farming. What you get are these
Speaker 3: floating feed lots, sort of slightly ominous, fortified plastic pipe
Speaker 3: and nylon netted structures that increasingly have a warlike feel
Speaker 3: with them. And that's necessary because they're actually waging a
Speaker 3: strange sort of war with the natural world in order
Speaker 3: that they can continue to grow the amount of salmon
Speaker 3: that they do. People always notice when a salmon farm
Speaker 3: arrives near them, how everything changes. The water starts to
Speaker 3: go murky, the smell of the sea changes. You start
Speaker 3: to get slicks and brown froth on the water. It
Speaker 3: got so bad in Macquarie Harbor. I've talked to people
Speaker 3: who work on the farms there. There would be methane
Speaker 3: bulls erupting at certain times the year from these meater,
Speaker 3: thick mats of waste at the bottom the sea floor,
Speaker 3: methane balls the size of soccer balls erupting on the
Speaker 3: surface from the rotting shit underneath. So it creates what
Speaker 3: is up close a fairly unpleasant environment. And what we
Speaker 3: can't see is the way the water underneath has almost
Speaker 3: no oxygen in it, and it's hypoxic, and on the
Speaker 3: sea floor sometimes what they call anoxic, that is, it
Speaker 3: has no oxygen whatsoever. Both those conditions are fatal we
Speaker 3: now know to the Morgan skate.
Speaker 1: So it sounds like a really critical point we're at
Speaker 1: for this skate. How have scientists told you they're feeling
Speaker 1: about its chances of survival?
Speaker 3: I think that best very frightened, and the worst despairing.
Speaker 3: Leonardo Guider, a scientist with the Marine Conservation Society, describes
Speaker 3: their fate as swimming around in a vortex of swirling shit,
Speaker 3: trying to breed through a straw.
Speaker 2: Salmon farming, the fish production and the fish waste and
Speaker 2: fish feed choose up what little oxygen is naturally in
Speaker 2: the harbor, so the harbor is naturally loyal.
Speaker 3: They can't breed in that sort of environment. They lay
Speaker 3: their eggs in the sediment, and it's now believed the
Speaker 3: eggs can't survive in the sediment when there's no oxygen,
Speaker 3: and the population has collapsed, according to a report issued
Speaker 3: last year, by forty seven percent. They're now under a
Speaker 3: thousand of these creatures left. The fear is that the
Speaker 3: creatures that are left, many of them may be past
Speaker 3: breeding age or incapable of actually reproducing.
Speaker 2: And we are one extreme weather events away from an extinction,
Speaker 2: and with our Nino bearing down on us possible storms
Speaker 2: on the front, we really need to make sure the
Speaker 2: harbor is as resilient as possible so that it can
Speaker 2: get the oxygen levels back up. And a key component
Speaker 2: of that, in fact, the primary threat to that is
Speaker 2: intensive and aquaculture within the harbor.
Speaker 3: When the industry began flagging that it wished to expand
Speaker 3: in twenty eleven, scientists warned the federal government, who had
Speaker 3: responsibilities under the EPBC Act to protect the World Heritage
Speaker 3: Area of Waters and to protect the Morganscape. It warned
Speaker 3: the Tasmanian government. Environmentalists issued similar public warnings, and not
Speaker 3: only that the leading salmon farmer and mcquarie Harbor at
Speaker 3: that time, who was a small scale arsenal salmon farmer
Speaker 3: Ron Morrison. He warned that if the expansion went ahead,
Speaker 3: the marine ecosystem Mcquarie Harbor would collapse within several years.
Speaker 3: In the Federal Environment Department's own report to Tanua Plibashek
Speaker 3: last September, it was made very very clear that the
Speaker 3: primary cause of this extinction was salmon farming. And what
Speaker 3: I find really extraordinary about this whole story is that
Speaker 3: this creature that survived sixty million years looks like it
Speaker 3: won't be able to survive one decade of three tax
Speaker 3: evading foreign owned multinational companies, greed and the cowdice of
Speaker 3: politicians who, rather than to act to regulate them and
Speaker 3: clean this industry up, have allowed them to destroy to
Speaker 3: the point of extinction.
Speaker 1: After the break, meet the big fish in Macquarie Harbor's
Speaker 1: little pond, Richard So, who owns the salmon far a
Speaker 1: lots in Macquarie Harbor And what do we know about
Speaker 1: those companies?
Speaker 3: Those companies are interesting. There's three there's only three companies
Speaker 3: that produce all of Australia's salmon. The smallest is Petuna,
Speaker 3: which is owned by the New Zealand company Sea Lord.
Speaker 3: Which is half owned by an ex Japanese whaling company
Speaker 3: called Massui.
Speaker 4: Petuna, unique and personalized, a culture that evolved from one
Speaker 4: Tasmanian family's intense desire to strive harder, to push further,
Speaker 4: to grow, and to lead as the world market sought
Speaker 4: improved food products in greater sustainability.
Speaker 3: The next biggest is human aquaculture that's owned by one
Speaker 3: of the most monstrous corporations in the world, JBS.
Speaker 4: For Tasmania's human aquaculture, one of the world's premium salmon producers.
Speaker 4: A new era in sustainable salmon farming is the way.
Speaker 3: JVS are a Brazilian family owned company who have the
Speaker 3: Juvius honor of being responsible for the biggest corruption scandal
Speaker 3: in world history.
Speaker 5: Brazilians were shocked when President Michelle Tamer was caught on
Speaker 5: tape apparently endorsing the payment of hush money to obstruct
Speaker 5: a major corruption prob.
Speaker 3: In twenty seventeen, the two brothers who owned it went
Speaker 3: to jail for bribing over eighteen hundred politicians and public figures.
Speaker 5: They even made a five hundred million dollar profit on
Speaker 5: their own lead testimony by buying and selling dollars right
Speaker 5: before and after the story broke, knowing the Brazilian currency
Speaker 5: would plunge.
Speaker 3: And today here on aquaculture is run out of Hobar
Speaker 3: by none other than Wesley Patista's son, Enrique Batista. There
Speaker 3: was the Australian Financial Review that dubbed him the Kendall
Speaker 3: roy of salmon farming. There was a secret donor's dinner
Speaker 3: with the Tasmanian Liberal Premier at which it was set
Speaker 3: some of the Batista family were present, and it was
Speaker 3: alleged they made demands of the premier. When he was
Speaker 3: questioned about these allegations.
Speaker 2: Of course, as all political parties do fundraiseres that's a
Speaker 2: matter for the Liberal Party organization.
Speaker 3: He refused to answer the question.
Speaker 1: And so tell me about the third company.
Speaker 3: The third company, Tassa, is owned by a company called
Speaker 3: Cook Aquaculture that was so bad and some environmental records
Speaker 3: so bad that it was thrown out of Washington State.
Speaker 3: Now punk fish farming will no longer be allowed in
Speaker 3: our state today, Commissioner. According to the Public Commissioner of
Speaker 3: Lands there, Hillary Frans, there some farming practices had put
Speaker 3: the entire marine ecosystem of Washington State in peril.
Speaker 1: Today we are truly freeing Washington States owned aquatic lands
Speaker 1: from Enclos to CAGs, so.
Speaker 3: The other companies, I mean, it's a gallery of rogues,
Speaker 3: to say the least. At the beginning of this year,
Speaker 3: we had Anthony Alberesi fly into Tasmania for one purpose
Speaker 3: only and that was to appear at a Tassau plant
Speaker 3: with a Tassau baseball cap on embroidered with his nickname
Speaker 3: on one side and salmon Tasmania on the other.
Speaker 6: Of Australia, Salmon comes from Tasmania and it's a major
Speaker 6: export industry. Some might argue it's Tasmania's second major export industry,
Speaker 6: only behind the export of Queen's as we've seen.
Speaker 3: But what Anthony Alberzi was there for was to reassure
Speaker 3: the industry essentially that nothing really was going to happen
Speaker 3: about Macquarie Harbor.
Speaker 6: My government supports jobs, we support regional economic development, and
Speaker 6: we support sustainability and this industry has a vital role
Speaker 6: to playing.
Speaker 3: And he said jobs and the environment can coexist, and
Speaker 3: he quoted this number that there were five thousand jobs
Speaker 3: in the industry and even more indirectly, this.
Speaker 6: Is an industry that produces some five thousand jobs, but
Speaker 6: many more jobs than that indirectly as well.
Speaker 3: The real number, according to the Tasmanian government's own salmon
Speaker 3: report in twenty twenty one, is one seven hundred and
Speaker 3: thirty four jobs. That is as reported to the government
Speaker 3: by the industry, the industry, labor, politicians, Antony Albanezi, Peter Darton,
Speaker 3: all these people have come out and said that there
Speaker 3: are hundreds of jobs at stake with Macquarie Harbor were
Speaker 3: salmon farming to be stopped there the figures according to
Speaker 3: the Tasmanian governments owned statistics, there are less than eighty
Speaker 3: one workers on the west coast of Tasmania. Then those
Speaker 3: jobs are important, and they are particularly important in struggling
Speaker 3: little communities. But I do not think it is beyond
Speaker 3: a nation to find other equally good work for less
Speaker 3: than eighty one people for something of this consequence, particularly
Speaker 3: when we know too that these waters are warming rapidly,
Speaker 3: that salmon can't survive in warmer waters, and that the
Speaker 3: industry will inevitably shut down and more Quarie Harbor within
Speaker 3: ten years.
Speaker 7: So it begs the question why politicians at state level
Speaker 7: at federal level continue to support the salmon industry.
Speaker 1: Why do you think it is.
Speaker 3: We have to reflect on that and wonder, and we
Speaker 3: should be very concerned about that. It speaks to a
Speaker 3: mentality amongst the political class that has completely lost the
Speaker 3: sense of what its role is, and that believe its
Speaker 3: only role is to enable corporations to do their business.
Speaker 3: Think the public good is identical to corporate profit. I
Speaker 3: think the other question this begs and I thought about
Speaker 3: this a lot. We wonder why we have all these
Speaker 3: problems with climate and it's very easy to think it's
Speaker 3: a few bad people, that it's this wicked politician, this
Speaker 3: terrible corporation. But ultimately why this is happening in Tasmania,
Speaker 3: it's because not enough people care and very few people act.
Speaker 3: You know, everyone listening to this can have an effect.
Speaker 3: Don't buy salmon, because every time you buy salm, you
Speaker 3: are helping drive this extraordinary creature to extinction. I think
Speaker 3: so much of what's wrong in the world happens not
Speaker 3: because of the bad people, but because the good people
Speaker 3: think they can do nothing. The good people can always
Speaker 3: do things. At the end of last year, where I
Speaker 3: went with some of the groups working to try and
Speaker 3: reform the salmon industry, and they met with leading Woolworth's executives,
Speaker 3: who have a great power to tell the industry it
Speaker 3: should clean up. And there'd been some meetings a few
Speaker 3: years before, and this meeting was completely different in tone
Speaker 3: because we realized very quickly that they had no arguments
Speaker 3: they could make that they knew the industry was rotten
Speaker 3: to the core, but we also knew that they were
Speaker 3: never going to do anything about it. Although they had
Speaker 3: titles like had to sustainability and words like ethics and
Speaker 3: so on. They could have agreed as a block to
Speaker 3: go back to their board and say it's rotten to
Speaker 3: the core and we can act to change it. But
Speaker 3: they won't do that. They'll never do that unless everyone
Speaker 3: in their different positions takes some responsibility and all of
Speaker 3: us can do things. Change has to come from within us,
Speaker 3: and first we have to change ourselves.
Speaker 1: Richard, thanks so much of your time today.
Speaker 3: Thank you.
Speaker 1: Also in the news today, a group of pro Palestinian
Speaker 1: protesters attempted to force their way to the floor of
Speaker 1: the Labor Party's Victorian State conference on Saturday, with the
Speaker 1: doors of the conference room having to be barricaded. Premier
Speaker 1: to Cinerell and accused the protesters of bringing violence, homophobia
Speaker 1: and anti Semitism to the front door. Later on Saturday afternoon,
Speaker 1: Victorian Labors rank and file members carried six non binding
Speaker 1: motions calling for an end to the Israel Hamas War
Speaker 1: and Australian captain Zam Kerr's club Chelsea has won its
Speaker 1: fifth straight English Premiership title, with an injured Kerr joining
Speaker 1: her teammates on the pitch to celebrate. Kerr had been
Speaker 1: set to appear in court on Monday for a preliminary
Speaker 1: hearing over charges she alleged caused racially aggravated harassment, alarm
Speaker 1: or distress to a police officer, but the case will
Speaker 1: now take longer, with the judge of setting a child
Speaker 1: ad for February next year. Her legal team intends to
Speaker 1: argue an abusive process by Crown prosecutors. That's all from
Speaker 1: the seven Am team today. Thanks for your company. We'll
Speaker 1: see you again tomorrow.