Algal Bloom

Mr BASHAM (Finniss) (14:54): My question is again to the Minister for Health and Wellbeing. Was a coordinated public health alert issued at the time the toxin-producing harmful algal bloom was first identified and, if not, why not?

The Hon. C.J. PICTON (Kaurna—Minister for Health and Wellbeing) (14:54): Ministers, politicians, political officials do not issue public health alerts. They are issued by the Chief Public Health Officer and her officials based on their determination of public health risk. I will check the records, but I am sure it would be up to the Chief Public Health Officer if she believed that such an alert was necessary. But, as I have said—and I have just tabled it for the member for Heysen, who was so keen to read it, so I do not have a copy of it anymore in front of me—the information is available on I think the SA Health website and also the state government algal bloom website. They are available for information, which has that information from the public health experts.

As I said, we have also undertaken teleconferences with our general practitioners to make sure that they've got available information. There's been communication that's gone out to GPs across the state as well. We are obviously wanting to keep in contact with our general practitioners as well. But I am not going to politically interfere with the issuing of public health alerts, and nor do I think that is a matter with which the opposition should be playing politics. We saw, during the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, bipartisan support for our public health advice, to be a constructive opposition, and I think we are seeing now what the opposite of that looks like.