Algal Bloom

Mr BASHAM (Finniss) (15:05): My question is to the Minister for Climate, Environment and Water. Was the government's response to the harmful algal bloom fragmented and confusing for stakeholders? With your leave, sir, and that of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

Mr BASHAM: In relation to the coordination of government response, the Senate inquiry states:

A wide range of inquiry participants claimed that the initial SA Government response and messaging about the HAB were fragmented and confusing for stakeholders.

The Hon. L.P. HOOD (Adelaide—Minister for Climate, Environment and Water) (15:06): I thank the member for his question. I reiterate the extensive cross-agency effort that has gone into responding to this unprecedented harmful algal bloom, and the extensive federal and state funding that has gone into supporting our coastal communities, our coastal small businesses and, of course, our experts who we back—particularly on this side of the house—and also our investment in nature's own recovery tools and our environment.

As we have seen throughout the rollout of our summer plan, we are making extensive investments in supporting the iconic South Australian summer that we all know and love. Whether that is through our BeachSafe app, which has had a significant take-up, providing people with the tools to decide where to plan their day at the beach, whether that is supporting our recreational fishers and boaters—I understand that the member for Reynell has some of her local fishers in the gallery today who are very much welcoming the reduction in boat ramp fees as part of our summer plan—or our significant voucher programs. The Minister for Tourism is doing a significant job, a fantastic job, in rolling those out. Whether it is our accommodation vouchers or whether it is our dining cashbacks, we have had an enormous response from people registering for those.

That is all about getting people to our coast because our small businesses want customers. We know the harmful algal bloom only affected around 30 per cent of our coastline. The Premier has stated that the perception of the bloom is perhaps more harmful than the bloom itself. That is why it beggars belief that the other side ask such questions when they have actually failed at every opportunity to call out their colleague and the way in which he has characterised the harmful algal bloom, whether that is comparing it to 'worse than COVID', a global pandemic that killed millions of people or whether that is posting AI-generated images of our beaches with blood in the water.

So perhaps, rather than questioning us on our significant $102.5 million summer plan, they should look a little bit closer to home because the only people they are hurting are the ones in our coastal communities and coastal small businesses.