An Australian lawmaker has hung a big fish in parliament to protest the Labor government’s policy seeking to maintain salmon production on Tasmania's west coast.
“On the eve of the election, have you sold out your environmental credentials for a rotten stinking extinction salmon?” said Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young while hanging a dead salmon during parliamentary question time on Wednesday, as she later posted on Facebook.
Australia’s federal election is set for mid-May.
“Extinction salmon,” she reiterated.
Greens and Labor lawmakers have been debating the legislation, which has passed the lower house already, according to local media.
If passed by the upper house on Wednesday, the legislation will limit the ability of the public and environmental groups to review certain environmental decisions.
Local officials blame the mass deaths on drought but critics say the issue at least partly stems from water mismanagement.
‘Rotten bil’
“Today, Labor's rushed laws to gut environmental protection in favor of the rotting salmon corporations are headed to the Senate.
The Greens will do everything we can to not let this rotten bill pass,” said an earlier Facebook post from the senator.
“With these changes, Australia's environment laws will be weaker than when the Labor Government won the election in 2022.”
Salmon farms cause "pollution from nitrogen and other nutrients that choke sensitive marine ecosystems," according to the Environmental Defenders Office in Australia.
The pollution from the farming is pushing the ancient Maugean Skate, a rare species endemic to Tasmania, towards extinction.
In 2018 and 2019, up to a million fish died in the same river near a remote town in the Australian outback from poor water flow, poor water quality, and sudden temperature changes.
