Why on earth has an Australian MP just whapped out a Salmon in parliament? | News World
An Australian politician has brought an unusual prop to parliament to make her distaste clear.
Senator Sarah Hanson-Young pulled a large, dead salmon from under her desk and held it aloft as she protested a proposed law to protect salmon farms in a Tasmanian islet which is world heritage listed.
The bill would guarantee salmon farming in Macquarie Harbour, located on Tasmania’s west coast, and make it more difficult for the public to review and challenge environmental decisions.
The Green senator criticised the bill, accusing the government of ‘gutting’ environmental protections to protect a ‘toxic, polluting salmon industry’.
As she lifted and dead fish and spoke, politicians behind her grimaced and laughed, and even waved their hands in front of their faces over the presumably smelly salmon.
She asked Labor senator Jenny McAllister, who was representing the Environment Minister: ‘On the eve of the election, have you sold out your environmental credentials for a rotten, stinking extinction salmon?
‘Now that the rotting, toxic salmon industry has a carve out from our environment laws, what toxic industry will be next?’
The stunt caused some commotion as the senate’s president asked her to remove ‘the prop’, and Ms McAllister replied: ‘My view is Australians deserve better from their public representative than stunts.
‘The only way that environmental change has ever occurred in this country is through Labor governments.’
Labor says the bill is needed to protect jobs in Tasmania’s salmon farming industry, with prime minister Anthony Albanese saying he ‘makes no apologies for supporting jobs’.
Environmental groups and the Greens are concerned about pollution and the impact on marine wildlife, including a rare fish called the Maugean skate which is only found in two harbours in the area.
The legislation passed in the Australian parliament’s lower house yesterday, with Labor and the Coalition voting together while blocking the Greens from having the bill considered by parliamentary committee.
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Intensive fish farming in the area has caused oxygen levels in the water to plummet in that area, a major threat to the Maugean skate.
But the government says it’s committed AUD$28million (£13.7million) to improving oxygenation in the harbour, as well as funding a captive breeding programme for the endangered skate species.
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