Emergency Action
The Australian Government is only days away from trying to create a loophole in our nature laws that could allow salmon farming companies to drive the Maugean skate to extinction and set a worrying precedent for Australia’s wildlife.
Australia’s nature laws should protect Australia’s wildlife, like the critically endangered Maugean skate.
But both the Albanese Government and the Dutton Opposition want to weaken our nature laws, which would prioritise foreign-owned salmon company profits over the future of the Maugean skate.
If Labor and the Coalition’s plans are successful in passing this dubious new law, common sense reconsideration of project approvals that impact on our most threatened species will no longer be possible across Australia’s land and seas.
The immediate consequence of these changes will be to undermine conservation efforts for Maugean skate, as fish waste from salmon farms will continue to choke this critically endangered species of oxygen.
Three years ago, the Albanese Government promised stronger nature laws and ‘no new extinctions’.
Instead it has not only failed to deliver these reforms, but also plans to weaken the current laws in parliament next week.
Australia risks being responsible for the world’s first ever marine fish extinction caused directly by aquaculture.
Unsustainable salmon farming will go unchallenged. Polluting industries must be regulated, not let off the hook.