Algal Bloom

The Hon. V.A. TARZIA (Hartley—Leader of the Opposition) (14:16): My question is to the Premier. Will the Premier now apologise to the people of South Australia for his handling of the harmful algal bloom health advice? With your leave, sir, and that of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Members on my right will come to order.

The Hon. V.A. TARZIA: On radio last week, radio host Will Gooding said, 'Asthma sufferers in South Australia are now officially confused when it comes to being in areas affected by the algal bloom.'

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS (Croydon—Premier) (14:16): The advice we received we put out on the public record. I think there is a debate about whether or not that should be done with only preliminary results, but we wanted to be transparent, and that is why we put that information out at the first opportunity once we had it. That was a deliberate decision. We did it literally within minutes of the task force considering the matter; we released the advice on the Thursday. I think that was the appropriate thing to do.

The Leader of the Opposition should familiarise himself with that press conference. It was covered off in the press conference, and I would have thought the opposition would be monitoring those press conferences, given that it is an important source of information and that we update it. We have made clear the position on this from the outset, in a way that I think is consistent with the best interests of South Australians, which is what we should do.

Again, I make the point that we are dealing with an unprecedented natural disaster. It does draw parallels with the unprecedented nature of the COVID-19 pandemic when, during the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, on this side of the house we were very deliberate about making sure we backed the government of the day on the health advice on it, particularly on matters that were important to the safety of South Australians and the response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

I can remember, when we were in opposition, being in receipt of emails that you could characterise as coming from the anti-vaxxer community critiquing the opposition, as they were critiquing the government at the time, around vaccinations. We made sure that we backed in the government around that challenge of ensuring that as many South Australians as possible were vaccinated. That was the appropriate thing to do, and we stood by that then and we stand by it now, just as I know most of the Liberal Party does, and—

The Hon. D.G. Pisoni interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Unley, you are on your final warning. One more peep and you're out.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The Minister for Trade and the member for Florey will come to order. Members on my right, the Premier will be heard in silence.

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: It is important, when it comes to circumstances like a natural disaster, that that approach is adopted. It is entirely reasonable for the opposition to ask questions about the government's response to the algal bloom. That is perfectly legitimate, and that is what should occur in the ordinary course of events. But I would say this, though: there is a responsibility on all of us in government, and in opposition, to be doing some basic fact checking before we bounce into parliamentary committees and start espousing research as fact, or before citing research and then providing sources without doing any sort of fact checking ourselves.

That is an important test, and it's ultimately going to be a test of leadership—a test of leadership—because it would be unacceptable, I think in most reasonable people's view, in the course of a natural disaster, to be proffering information as fact that, when assessed, doesn't stand to reason or stand up to scrutiny. That would be an extraordinary set of circumstances and something worthy of contemplation as these events unfold.