House of Assembly Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1) 55 1 Parliament of South Australia House of Assembly published Question Time Algal Bloom Algal Bloom Mr ELLIS House of Assembly Narungga Algal Bloom Mr ELLIS (Narungga) (14:55): My question is to the Premier. Will the government consider indemnifying community groups holding their annual events in areas affected by the algal bloom? With your leave, sir, and that of the house, I will explain. Leave granted. Mr ELLIS House of Assembly Narungga Mr ELLIS: By way of example, Port Vincent is preparing to host its annual gala day this summer and it is already spending quite a bit of its own money for infrastructure and supplies. The Progress Association are concerned that if no-one turns up because of the impact of the algal bloom they will be out of pocket and are concerned as to where this will leave them financially. The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN House of Assembly Lee Treasurer Minister for Defence and Space Industries Minister for Police The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN (Lee—Treasurer, Minister for Defence and Space Industries, Minister for Police) (14:56): I thank the member for Narungga again for raising an issue which is obviously front of mind for his community. As part of the $28 million financial assistance package which the state government has announced in partnership with the commonwealth, there was an allocation for community purposes. But I think what we would seek to do is to try to encourage the community to attend those events regardless of the impacts—perceived or actual—of the algal bloom. Nonetheless, if community groups want to make approaches towards accessing some of that funding that has specifically been set aside for community purposes, we are very open to having those discussions. It's not just a feature of the package that we provided in response to the algal bloom, but it's something that we have also done for the drought assistance package and what we have done previously for the River Murray flood package as well. It has proven a success in both of those contexts, so perhaps we can speak further and get some of the details and get some information back to your constituents.