Anthony Albanese's bid to legislate protections for the Tasmanian aquaculture sector - shielding it from the consequences of its own environmental harm - could result in the single most damaging environmental legacy of an Australian Prime Minister to date.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
or signup to continue reading
What these multinational food-exporting companies are seeking from the Prime Minister is permission to drive species to extinction - asking for protection from the consequences of their own mismanagement.
If Prime Minister Albanese moves forward with this on behalf of the sector, it will be the first time in history that an Australian government has legislated to allow the deliberate extinction of a species - the Maugean skate.
The endangered Maugean skate, found only in Tasmania's Macquarie Harbour, is under serious threat due to environmental damage caused by intensive salmon farming.
These operations have significantly reduced dissolved oxygen levels in the harbour, degrading the skate's habitat and pushing the species closer to extinction.
This is a species that coexisted with the dinosaurs, survived an asteroid impact and the resulting mass extinction, endured multiple ice ages - but may not survive Albanese's prime ministership.
Anthony Albanese, as shadow environment minister 20 years ago, was the first politician from a major party to bring attention to Australia's extinction crisis.
He personally led Labor's opposition to elements of the EPBC Act under the Howard government.
As recently as three years ago, he spoke passionately about the weaknesses in Australia's environmental laws - while simultaneously celebrating Labor's environmental legacy under Bob Hawke.
This is not just any species. The globally significant, ancient "dinosaur fish" is a cornerstone of the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area, one of the reasons it is globally recognised and protected.
To actively facilitate its extinction would aggressively undermine the UNESCO World Heritage system and push the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area to the brink of being placed on the "endangered" list - an outcome that Bob Hawke once prevented, but which Anthony Albanese could now enable.
This legislation, now passed, will forever be known as the "Albanese Extinction Clause".
This is a political legacy unmatched anywhere in the world - one that would allow any future government, under corporate lobbying pressure, to grant the right to drive a species to
extinction. It would be to global environmental politics, the opposite of what Bob Hawke was to the Labor Party's environmental record.
Such a legacy would have ramifications far beyond a three-year political cycle. It would echo across millennia, as species lost to extinction never return.
READ MORE:
Furthermore, any promise to protect jobs by shielding industries from the consequences of their own environmental destruction is a falsehood.
Governments cannot override the reality that investment markets will abandon industries associated with large-scale environmental destruction.
Destroying a key element of a World Heritage site's reason for listing and driving a species to extinction would be one of the highest-level environmental crimes a company could commit or a government could permit.
Regional Forest Agreements provide a case study in how governments can slow but never fully prevent the ultimate corporate self-harm that comes with refusing to move on from unsustainable practices.
Similarly, any attempt to legislate industry protections will only delay the inevitable reckoning with environmental responsibility.
- Tim Beshara is the manager of policy and strategy for the Wilderness Society.
