Legislative Council Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1) 55 1 Parliament of South Australia Legislative Council published Question Time Algal Bloom Algal Bloom The Hon. D.G.E. HOOD Legislative Council Algal Bloom The Hon. D.G.E. HOOD (15:42): My question to the minister is— Members interjecting: The Hon. D.G.E. HOOD Legislative Council The Hon. D.G.E. HOOD: Which minister? I beg your pardon. The Minister for Primary Industries. Will the minister commit to a voluntary licence and quota buyback scheme for fishers affected by the algal bloom to ensure industry adjustment and stock conservation in these difficult circumstances? Secondly, has the minister sought federal partnership funding or natural disaster recovery assistance to fund such a scheme? The Hon. C.M. SCRIVEN Legislative Council Minister for Primary Industries and Regional Development Minister for Forest Industries The Hon. C.M. SCRIVEN (Minister for Primary Industries and Regional Development, Minister for Forest Industries) (15:42): I thank the honourable member for his question. The issue that he has raised is certainly a topic of discussion. We have been working very closely with industry throughout the period of the algal bloom and that is one of the options that has been raised in some of those discussions. We will continue to engage in those discussions and give consideration as to what it might mean. Of course, we would then need to take into account what would be lessons learned from when the former Liberal government implemented a buyback scheme and did so with such significant problems. Members may recall that the then minister, the member for Finniss, was found to have acted without any legislative basis on his treatment of exceptional circumstances through that buyback scheme. We would certainly want to be ensuring that any potential scheme was well considered and well looked into before making any such commitment.