A Sustainable Growth Plan for the Tasmanian salmonid industry will be developed by the Tasmanian Government as part of a range of measures to ensure future growth of the industry occurs sustainably.
The Plan, which will detail the government’s priorities and actions to guide the sustainable growth of the industry, comes in addition to a new package of environmental regulatory reforms for the industry, which will be tabled in Parliament in May.
The Hodgman Liberal Government is committed to the salmon industry which supports more than 5,200 jobs in regional Tasmania, and is among the best regulated in the world, but we recognise that there is more that needs to be done.
We acknowledge that some in the community are concerned around the growth of the industry and want to provide the community with surety on the way forward through a publicly available Plan.
The Sustainable Salmonid Industry Growth Plan will be developed by the Government in consultation with industry and the community, and will detail the government’s vision and priorities for the industry into the future.
While I don’t want to pre-empt the Sustainable Growth Plan’s final form, it is likely that the Plan will recommend future growth of the industry be largely oceanic, rather than estuarine.
The sustainable growth of the industry is also about ensuring there is appropriate investment in research and development, biosecurity and skills.
Additionally, the Government has commenced a further regulatory improvement process as part of ensuring the long term sustainability of the environment and industry, and to assure the future of the regional communities who rely on this growing sector of our State economy.
These improvements are focussed on ensuring our regulatory framework continues to keep pace with industry growth and give confidence to the community and market.
The additional improvements include legislating a new environmental license for salmonid aquaculture to enable the EPA to consolidate all environmental conditions into a single regulatory instrument, and ensure they are being met by operators.
The improvements will also legislatively formalise the ongoing responsibility for environmental regulation of the salmon industry to the independent Environment Protection Authority (EPA).
This measure integrates the regulation of all salmonid inland and marine farms, including hatcheries, and will improve overall consistency of process
The Government will be working with the industry, local government and the community as the legislative reform package progresses to ensure we remain responsive to their concerns, and assure them of our commitment to the industry and the environment.
A summary of the reforms: Salmonid Aquaculture Improvements to Environmental Regulation Position Paper can now be viewed here: dpipwe.tas.gov.au/salmonreform
It is anticipated that the Sustainable Growth Plan will be finalised in Spring this year.
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