HANSARD
SITTING CALENDAR
SEARCH
LIVE BROADCAST
Hansard Dynamic Member Index
House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2025-08-20 Daily Xml
Contents
Xml

Seafood Quality Testing

S.E. ANDREWS (Gibson) (14:30): My question is to the Premier. Can the Premier update the house on matters relating to seafood quality testing capabilities?

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS (Croydon—Premier) (14:30): I want to thank the member for Gibson for her question. The member for Gibson is not just the MP for a coastal community, the member for Gibson is also a person of great intellect and has great interest in environmental policy more broadly and I know, having represented professionals in our state, appreciates the power and the importance of being able to appropriately have testing regimes and science to inform policy going forward.

To that end, today was a really important milestone because, as it currently stands, somewhere in the order of 10-ish per cent of the state's oyster production has been compromised by the algae. Much of this is complex, but the Karenia mikimotoi doesn't in and of itself create a brevetoxin, but the brevetoxin has been a consequence of the algal bloom itself.

When brevetoxin gets into our oysters and is detected through a testing regime, it excludes that oyster production area from being able to contribute to the sale of oysters. The vast majority of oysters in our state are actually doing exceedingly well—in fact, the oysters feed on the algae, and they always have and always will. So for many, they are actually doing very well indeed and products are going to the market and it is important that we keep buying them.

But for the ones that are affected, the challenge has been that the place they have to get tested is in New Zealand and that brings with it a substantial time lag. There is no testing capability in our nation for the brevetoxin in bivalves or in shellfish or, more specifically, in oysters. One of the things that we have sought funding for—or we have funded as a state government in conjunction with the commonwealth—is for South Australia to establish one of these testing regimes, the first in the nation.

It takes a long time to be able to get the testing regime in place. It has to meet a whole range of international standards and accreditation efforts. We pulled together a team within the state government to see how we can rapidly expedite the effort to be able to bring this to fruition. One great South Australian company, Agilex, contacted my office, in conjunction with others, and we have been able to today, within a month, establish that this company, based in Thebarton, will now be the nation's first to be able to do the testing. We announced today that in four to six weeks from now they will be able to start the testing regime.

This is an extraordinary South Australian business, demonstrating all of its ingenuity and innovative capacities to not just respond to this challenge but to do it quickly. It is quite a remarkable effort and speaks to the ingenuity that we have in a South Australian enterprise that our government seeks to partner with. Today I was there with the Prime Minister to speak to these extraordinary people who are making this happen at such short notice.

On top of that, the government continues to invest in other scientific efforts, including real-time monitoring that is, in effect, a SARDI-leading technology that we are seeing being deployed around our coastal communities and, more than that, the federal government today also announced more new money for scientific research. So this is us leaning in on the science, leaning in on making a difference if we can. We are not denying science, we are not having internal arguments on this side of the house about what science is real and what science is fake depending on the politics of the day; what we are focusing on is running towards this science, embracing it, and then deploying it to ensure we have a thoughtful public policy response to this unprecedented challenge.

The SPEAKER: Before I call the leader, I would remind him to stop interjecting. It was very annoying. There are a lot of people in my electorate, like there are in other electorates around the state, affected by this, and I was trying to listen carefully to what the Premier had to say. I didn't appreciate that constant noise that you were making throughout that. Like so many things that come before this house, they are very serious matters, and there is absolutely nothing stopping people asking questions about what the government is doing about stuff. Let's just show a little bit of respect when someone is giving an answer. I would appreciate that.

PARLIAMENTARY BUSINESS
MEMBERS
GET INVOLVED
ABOUT PARLIAMENT
VISIT
LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL
HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY
CONTACT