Huon blames expansion on ‘defect’

A DEFECT in a federal minister’s decision meant salmon producer Tassal was able to expand its operations in Macquarie Harbour, the Federal Court in Hobart has heard.

Closing Huon Aquaculture’s case yesterday against the federal environment minister’s 2012 decision to expand salmon farming in the West Coast harbour, lawyer Adrian Galasso, SC, said Tassal would not have been permitted and would not have expanded its operations in the harbour without the “defect”.

The court heard in 2012, the total salmon stocks in Macquarie Harbour were not to exceed 52.5 per cent of the “modelled maximum sustainable biomass”, which, at the time, was set at 29,000 tonnes.

Last week, the court heard Tassal fully stocked its leases in mid-2013, a time Huon Aquaculture says the 52.5 per cent limit still applied.

“The expansion, that is the introduction of biomass over the 52.5 per cent limit was to be done in an organised and orderly way not ... at the impetus of one operator,” Mr Galasso said.

He also said it was “incredulous” for Tassal to suggest that the 52.5 per cent limit applied harbour-wide, not separately to each of the three companies farming salmon in the harbour.

Mr Galasso told the court it was not an issue that the federal environment minister could defer to the State Government regulators.

He said the State Government’s determinations of fish stock limits were made under legislation that had wider considerations than the federal Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act.

“[The State Government’s] job is motivated by factors that are beyond the factors ... of the EPBC Act,” he said.

“The state act’s concerned with marine farming, not environmental protection.”

Tassal and Petuna are also parties to the legal action.

Justice Duncan Kerr said the court would reserve and publish its decision in due course.

loretta.lohberger@news.com.au