Today we are launching our Sustainable Industry Growth Plan for the Salmon Industry which provides a blueprint of our biggest primary industry.
With an annual revenue of nearly $730 million and supporting 5200 jobs, the Hodgman Liberal Government has committed to ensuring our world-class salmon industry continues to grow sustainably, is managed through strong independent regulation and is supported by the community.
Following extensive community and stakeholder consultation, our Plan includes transferring responsibility for environmental regulation and management to the independent Environment Protection Authority, introducing increased penalties for breaches of regulations, and creating a new mechanism for excluding finfish marine farming from areas of the State’s coastline.
A key element of the draft and the final Plan is the map, which identifies both “Grow zones” and “No grow zones” so that Tasmanians can be certain about the location of future farming.
Like the rest of the Plan, the map has been very carefully reviewed as part of the public consultation and has changed in a number of ways, to reinforce our commitment to protecting competing interests and environmental values.
Changes to the map include:
-The east side of the Furneaux Group and the west coast of King Island have been changed from Potential future growth areas to No grow zones;
-The shading in the far North West has been changed to highlight the industry’s interest is confined to deeper waters;
-Tassal’s new permit for environmental investigation on part of the east coast of King Island has been included; and
-The area of No grow zones in the South East has been extended to formalise protection of reef habitat, including the globally important abalone ground around the Actaeons.
The full extent of the changes made in the final Plan, including the map, are documented in the consultation report that we are also releasing today.
The report explains the Hodgman Government’s responses to the issues raised and is accompanied by all of the comments and submissions received, other than those marked as confidential.
Implementation of the Plan will be overseen by the new industry reference group, which we expect to be in place by Christmas.
Early priorities for the reference group will include the commencement of the Finfish Farming Environmental Regulation Act in December, putting in place the process for reviewing and renewing the industry’s Biosecurity Program and bringing industry together to address issues surrounding Macquarie Harbour.
For more information on the Sustainable Industry Growth Plan for the Salmon Industry visit: http://dpipwe.tas.gov.au/salmonplan
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