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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2025-08-20 Daily Xml
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Algal Bloom

Mr BASHAM (Finniss) (15:10): My question is to the Minister for the Environment. What advice did the Deputy Premier receive from scientists in April in relation to the algal bloom and what subsequent actions were taken?

The Hon. S.E. CLOSE (Port Adelaide—Deputy Premier, Minister for Climate, Environment and Water, Minister for Industry, Innovation and Science, Minister for Workforce and Population Strategy) (15:10): Well, of course, the algal bloom started in March and by 25 March, I think it was, we identified that it was Karenia mikimotoi that was the species. So as we moved into April, we were starting to really pull together the expertise in that particular form of algal bloom.

We started off with a cross-agency working group, which started on 3 April, as you are asking about April. We held a round table with local government and government agencies on 9 April. That was in order to present to local government in the affected communities all of the information and advice that we had to date. Of particular interest and importance, of course, at that time was that from SA Health, to know what the health impacts might be. We offered a briefing for the affected MPs—being yourself, of course, and the member for Mawson and the member for Narungga—on 17 April in order to make sure that you and others had an opportunity to make any suggestions and ask any questions.

The information that we were receiving from the scientists—including the Bureau of Meteorology—during April was that what has previously happened with blooms of that species, including in South Australia back in 2014, is that they tend to pass within a few weeks, particularly when there is the break in weather into winter. Normally the break in the weather occurs around 25 April and the expectation was that it was likely to occur at that point. That was the advice from the scientists and it is the experience of most places in the world that have experienced a Karenia mikimotoi.

At that point, it was also very clear from all of the scientists that there was no intervention that one could deploy in order to deal with it—and that remains the advice from the scientists. We discussed in some detail the use of clay and modified clay in our waters. In fact, if there were a magical way to deal with algal blooms from the start, you wouldn't see a country as rich as the United States having near-annual impacts of algal bloom in Florida and also off the coast of California. If there were something magical, I am pretty sure they would have deployed it.

There are promising signs with the use of modified clay, as well as some warning signs, and we are absolutely interested. But to pretend that there might have been something in April that could have been done—

Members interjecting:

The Hon. S.E. CLOSE: I don’t know how you listen when you are talking so much. It is quite an interesting skill you have there. That was the kind of effort that was going on in April with the deployment of SARDI and the environment department. The EPA was involved at that point in time also, alongside the Bureau of Meteorology and the health department.

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