{"id":39413,"date":"2026-06-11T04:08:57","date_gmt":"2026-06-10T18:08:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/?p=39413"},"modified":"2026-06-11T04:08:57","modified_gmt":"2026-06-10T18:08:57","slug":"maugean-skate-still-at-risk-of-extinction-from-political-bastardry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/2026\/06\/11\/maugean-skate-still-at-risk-of-extinction-from-political-bastardry\/","title":{"rendered":"Maugean skate still at risk of extinction from political bastardry"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Maugean skate remains at risk of extinction and recovery isn\u2019t yet assured, according to an&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.utas.edu.au\/__data\/assets\/pdf_file\/0005\/1943078\/2025-Macquarie-Harbour-Maugean-skate-population-status-and-monitoring-report.pdf\"><u>IMAS report<\/u><\/a>&nbsp;released today. The skate\u2019s precarious future continues to be underpinned by political bastardry, the Greens say.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Greens spokesperson for healthy oceans and Senator for Lutruwita\/Tasmania, Peter Whish-Wilson:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe Albanese government has used its power to undermine the survival of the Maugean skate for its mates in the salmon industry and for its own political interest \u2013 it cannot be trusted to protect the skate.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe federal government\u2019s own scientific advice clearly states the key threat to the Maugean skate\u2019s survival is poor water quality in Macquarie Harbour, and that the primary cause of this is Atlantic salmon farming. It recommended stopping or destocking salmon as an immediate measure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe plight of this prehistoric species could be immediately improved by reducing salmon farming in Macquarie Harbour, but nobody in the Albanese government has the political will to make this a reality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cRather than take the action needed to protect Tasmania\u2019s waterways and threatened species, the federal government has ignored scientific advice and let the salmon industry off the hook.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThese foreign-owned salmon farming companies pollute Tasmania\u2019s waterways, make hundreds of millions of dollars in profit, and pay no licence fees or royalties for the privilege of using our public waterways. To make matters worse, the industry has recently been awarded taxpayer funds to try and repair the damage it\u2019s caused to the environment.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIt\u2019s state capture fuelled by political bastardry.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Maugean skate remains at risk of extinction and recovery isn\u2019t yet assured, according to an&nbsp;IMAS report&nbsp;released today. The skate\u2019s precarious future continues to be underpinned by political bastardry, the Greens say.&nbsp; Greens spokesperson for healthy oceans and Senator for Lutruwita\/Tasmania, Peter Whish-Wilson: \u201cThe Albanese government has used its power to undermine the survival of &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/2026\/06\/11\/maugean-skate-still-at-risk-of-extinction-from-political-bastardry\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Maugean skate still at risk of extinction from political bastardry&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-39413","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aussie"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39413","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39413"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39413\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39414,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39413\/revisions\/39414"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39413"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39413"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39413"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}