South Coast Algal Bloom

Mr ELLIS (Narungga) (12:54): I move:

That this house urges the government to—

(a) fully investigate the cause of the recent algal bloom, including the link to brevetoxin found at Stansbury;

(b) examine the health effects on humans and damage done to marine life;

(c) consider the likelihood of this occurring again and whether it will become more prevalent; and

(d) commission research into how to minimise the effects of this should it happen again, including possible intervention to dispel the bloom proactively.

I would like to start by thanking the government and the opposition for allowing this motion to be brought to near on the top of the list. It is a time-sensitive one; it is an issue that is affecting the coastline of South Australia as we speak here today. It is something that I am glad we can deal with, or at least start to deal with, today in the chamber so as to hopefully ensure we can get the ball rolling on some opportunities for improvement going forward and to ensure we are not missing out on addressing this issue as it is occurring.

It is a massive issue. I can tell you that the bottom of the peninsula has suffered greatly from the algal bloom arrival, the damage done to marine life and the impact it is having on human health. There are people who live down at the bottom of Yorke Peninsula who frequent beaches around there for the marine life and the untouched beauty that our natural environment has, and who are returning home after their morning walk suffering the side effects of the algal bloom.

Rick Hutchinson has been in touch with my office quite a bit; he is someone who I have mentioned in this chamber before. He loves to go to the beach in the morning and it is part of his normal routine, but he has had to stay away as a result of the algal bloom affecting his health and the side effects that it is causing. It is having a significant effect on our local population.

Lochie Cameron, who has been in the media frequently as a citizen scientist, has been patrolling the beaches and surveying the marine life that has washed up there, unfortunately, and he is reporting a catastrophic event out there in the ocean. In his view, and it is far more educated than mine, it is an apocalypse-style event that is doing significant damage to our marine life and it will be generations before it rebounds to the state that it was in previous to the algal bloom.

I know that a friend of mine, Steve Bowley at Pacific Estate Oysters, has had his business shut down as a result of the brevetoxins that have been found that are presumably associated with the algal bloom. He has had that extended again; it is yet to be opened and it is having a significant impact on his business. He said in the local paper just yesterday that if this is to continue for another month, he is not sure that his business will survive. There are at least two or three oyster farms near Stansbury that are suffering the same fate and presumably will head towards the same result if they are not allowed to open sooner rather than later to ensure they can get back to turning a profit on their business. It is having a significant impact.

Rob Rankine, another friend of mine, who owns the Dalrymple Hotel in Stansbury, has reported catastrophic earnings as a result of the algal bloom. It is having a significant impact on our tourism industry. People who ordinarily come for crabbing or fishing or some sort of winter activity on Yorke Peninsula have not come over the past few months and have stayed home as a result of the bad publicity—rightly so—that the algal bloom has brought with it. It is having a significant impact on our community.

I think the most frustrating thing is that there does not seem to be any action that the government or anyone else can take to try to ameliorate the issue. This is not a criticism of government, that is for sure; they have, in my view, been up-front and provided information to the people who are affected. But, as best we understand it, there is nothing that can be done proactively to get the bloom moving, get it dispelled and get it moving on, and that is something that I think we need to address sooner rather than later.

If this was a bushfire on land or some other natural disaster, there would be action that the government would have in the chamber ready to go so they could launch as soon as it became an issue. Well, there does not seem to be anything ready to go for this algal bloom, apart from the fact that we need to wait for the conditions to be right, for the cool weather to blow in and for some rain to dispel that bloom and ensure it can get moving. That is frustrating for people who are affected by it. It is frustrating for people like Steve Bowley, it is frustrating for people like Lochie Cameron and it is frustrating for me as someone who is receiving quite a few complaints from around the electorate.

I hope we can get some research commissioned to try to investigate how we can best cope with this if it is to happen again. It is not a unique thing; it happens around the world. My quick googling has revealed it has happened in the US, Norway and the English Channel, and it was first spotted in Japan in 1935. So it is not a new thing. It is something that we should be able to research and call upon a body of evidence that has been accumulated over quite a number of decades now to try to figure out what, if anything, we can do to address this issue in the future and ensure it does not have such a catastrophic impact on our local community when it happens again.

Mr ODENWALDER (Elizabeth) (12:59): In the time allotted to me, I move to amend the motion as follows:

Remove paragraph (a) and insert new paragraph:

(a) consider the causes of the recent algal blooms and naturally occurring brevetoxins;

Remove paragraph (b) and insert new paragraph:

(b) consider the damage done to marine life and the effects on human wellbeing;

Remove paragraph (d) and insert new paragraph:

(d) continue research into the effects of the bloom and mitigation measures.

Amendment carried; motion as amended carried.

Sitting suspended from 13:01 to 14:00.