South Australian Algal Blooms

The Hon. R.A. SIMMS (16:14): I move:

1. That, in the opinion of this council, a joint committee be appointed to inquire into and report on the harmful algal blooms in South Australian marine and coastal environments, with particular reference to:

(a) contributing environmental, land management or water quality factors;

(b) ecological, economic, cultural and social impacts of algal blooms including impact on community health and wellbeing;

(c) the cultural and economic impacts on Indigenous communities, including any loss of access to cultural practices;

(d) the coordination of state government responses, including agency responsibility, industry engagement, scientific advice, and public communications;

(e) the current support and recovery arrangements for impacted industries and communities;

(f) the adequacy of long-term monitoring, forecasting and prevention strategies;

(g) the adequacy of research funding, rehabilitation and recovery planning;

(h) any other related matters.

2. That, in the event of a joint committee being appointed, the Legislative Council be represented thereon by three members, of whom two shall form a quorum of council members necessary to be present at all sittings of the committee.

3. That members of the committee may participate in the proceedings by way of telephone or videoconference or other electronic means and shall be deemed to be present and counted for purposes of a quorum, subject to such means of participation remaining effective and not disadvantaging any member.

4. That this council permits the joint committee to authorise the disclosure or publication, as it thinks fit, of any evidence or documents presented to the committee prior to such evidence being reported to the council.

5. That a message be sent to the House of Assembly transmitting the foregoing resolution and requesting its concurrence thereto.

This motion is to establish a joint committee to inquire into and report on the harmful algal blooms in South Australian marine and coastal environments, and it lists a series of areas for the committee to inquire into. On 15 March this year, dozens of surfers and beachgoers on the southern coast of the Fleurieu Peninsula fell ill after visiting local beaches. Indeed, I remember ABC News reports around this—I think it was the ABC that first broke that something unusual was happening—but of course at that time no-one really understood what was going on.

The next day, a brown foam and dead sea life were found on the beach. The cause was soon identified as the microalgae toxic Karenia mikimotoi, which was a microalgae toxic to fish and vertebrates and this had bloomed due to an ongoing marine heatwave. Over the last few months, we have watched as algae has rapidly spread from the Fleurieu Peninsula across to the Spencer Gulf. It has grown in size to 4,500 square kilometres, almost double the size of the ACT, and it has reached as deep as 20 metres below the water.

We have all witnessed the horrifying scenes along our beaches as this underwater devastation has washed up on our shores. The bloom has killed at least 15,000 animals from over 450 species, according to observations on the citizen science site Naturalist—although the number is likely much more significant. These include fiddler rays, worm eels, Port Jackson sharks, crabs, pufferfish and leafy sea dragons. It has been devastating to see those images of those animals washing up on our beaches. I think as South Australians we have been brought up to view the sea as being restorative and a place for relaxation and restoration, and so it is devastating to see these beaches becoming graveyards.

Of particular concern is the algae's entry into the Coorong, which is delicately balanced, an ecosystem that has been dealing with multiple environmental pressures for decades now. Dr Jonathan Sobels, chair of the Coorong Environmental Trust, told the ABC last month that what we are looking at here is an ecological collapse. He further warned that the degradation caused by the bloom could put the Coorong's listing as a wetland of international importance under the 1970 Ramsar Convention in jeopardy. SA Health has also advised that contact with the algae can cause flu-like symptoms, including skin rashes and respiratory symptoms.

The impacts of this harmful algal bloom on the fishing, aquaculture and tourism industries, and the coastal communities that rely on them, has been utterly devastating. Indeed, I had the opportunity to travel recently to Whyalla and Port Lincoln. While I was in Whyalla, I met with a local cuttlefish tourism operator and he told me that their operations have been reduced by 50 per cent over the last few months, and that is despite the fact that the algal bloom had not even reached those waters at that stage, but there is a perception that the algal bloom has impacted on the cuttlefish. There is a serious risk, of course, that this may well happen in the future and that would be devastating for that sector as well as the environment.

The commercial fishing industry has been very hard hit. Some fishers are reporting that they have been left with nothing to catch at all due to fish kills. Oyster growers in and around the gulf were forced to close sales for months on end. Fishing and tackle shops have had their sales collapsed by what I understand to be up to 70 per cent.

A survey by the Tourism Industry Council of SA found that 40 per cent of South Australian businesses being impacted by the algal bloom have experienced a downturn in trade. The average year-on-year loss for a business in July was $52,000, with 14 per cent of respondents saying they had lost more than $100,000. This has caused significant anxiety for people living along the coast and further economic hardship at a time when our state is already grappling with a cost-of-living crisis.

Last month, a report by the Biodiversity Council, an independent expert group founded by 11 universities, called the harmful algal bloom 'one of the worst marine disasters in living memory' that requires rapid investigation by federal and state governments to identify any at-risk species and to fund emergency interventions if necessary. They warned that the impact of the marine heatwave that has driven the algal bloom is likely to be the equivalent of the impact of the Black Summer bushfires and demanded a similar response from governments. They urged governments to commit to seven actions to respond for the 'foreseeable and even predicted' event and to prepare for 'an increasingly dangerous and unstable future'.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has noted that there has been a documented increase in frequency and intensity of harmful algal blooms. Indeed, this is happening over many places around the world. The IPCC states with regard to climate change:

Overall, the occurrence of HABs [harmful algal blooms], their toxicity and risk on natural and human systems are projected to continue to increase with warming and rising CO2 in the 21st century…The increasing likelihood of occurrences of HABs under climate change also elevates their risks on ecosystem services such as fisheries, aquaculture and tourism as well as public health.

Flinders University Associate Professor of Natural Sciences Jochen Kaempf has developed a computer model to predict where the algae will spread next. In preliminary research now undergoing peer review, Professor Kaempf predicts that the bloom will ease over winter but worsen next summer, with potentially devastating results for the environment and for the seafood, aquaculture and tourism industries.

There can be no question that we are facing the biggest ecological catastrophe in our state's modern history, and this parliament has a responsibility to investigate. I know that my Greens colleagues in Canberra have initiated a national Senate inquiry that is considering the national implications of this and, of course, the role for the federal government.

The inquiry that I am moving for today will consider the environmental, land management and water quality factors that caused the harmful algal bloom and enabled them to spread so rapidly and to devastate our coastline. It will investigate the ecological, environmental, cultural and social impacts of the algal bloom, including the impact on community health and wellbeing. This will include the cultural and economic impacts on Indigenous communities and any loss of access to cultural practices.

We have the federal inquiry, but, as we know, algae actually falls under the remit of the state government to primarily manage, so I think it is appropriate that we investigate the response to date, identify what is being done and what can be done in the future to prevent this bloom from spreading.

In any natural disaster, it is the government's role to protect our community and to ensure communities bearing the brunt are provided with the resources they need to make a recovery. This inquiry will therefore examine the coordination of the state government's response to the crisis, including key agency responsibility, industry engagement, scientific advice and public communications. It will consider the current support and recovery arrangements for impacted industries and communities that rely directly on healthy marine ecosystems to survive. We know that these are desperate for help and for this algal bloom to end.

Critically, the inquiry will consider long-term monitoring, forecasting and prevention strategies so that we can plan for managing the impacts of this harmful bloom and take all necessary measures to protect our community, our economy and our environment through this crisis. We must determine what steps we may take to prevent a catastrophe like this from occurring in the future.

I am proposing this inquiry in a multipartisan spirit. It is my hope that all political parties will support this. It is a joint inquiry, which means that there is, of course, the capacity to bring in the expertise of our colleagues in the other place, particularly those members who have an interest because they represent coastal communities. It is my hope that all parties will get on board and support this. I indicate to the chamber that I will bring this to a vote in our next sitting period so that we can get moving on this. I recognise this is going to be potentially a key issue heading into the next state election and there is significant community interest in this, so we need to get cracking before parliament winds up. With that, I conclude my remarks.

Debate adjourned on motion of Hon. I.K. Hunter.