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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2025-09-02 Daily Xml
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Question Time

Algal Bloom

The Hon. V.A. TARZIA (Hartley—Leader of the Opposition) (14:07): My question is to the Premier. Can the Premier guarantee our beaches won't be closed for swimming this summer? Does he agree with the views of his environment minister in relation to plans being put in place? With your leave, sir, and that of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

The Hon. V.A. TARZIA: During a radio interview on 17 July this year, responding to a caller asking if our beaches would need to be closed this summer, the environment minister said:

It's possible and that's one of the plans that we are having to put in place. It is absolutely something we need to prepare for.

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS (Croydon—Premier) (14:08): I thank the Leader of the Opposition for his question. The Leader of the Opposition, I think along with potentially other members of the opposition, has asked this question previously, and we have made clear that the advice that the government is currently receiving around beach closures is that there would not be a reason to expect that would occur. Of course, no one can predict the future but, as it stands today, we are in receipt of advice from our officials that they do not anticipate a set of circumstances under which beaches would need to be closed.

That is not to say that circumstances can't change, but we have no advice, as it stands today, that that would be required, nor would we want that to change. On this side of the house, we are working exceptionally hard to make sure that all judgements the government is making in respect of the harmful algal bloom are done in a way that is consistent with the science and the public health advice that we are frequently in receipt of. We will have another taskforce meeting on Thursday, as we regularly do.

Over the course of late last week I also had more opportunity to spend time with our senior officials in this regard, from both SARDI and the public health section of the SA unit, and they are working collaboratively as a team in conjunction with our officials within the Department for Environment and Water as well.

It would be very unfortunate if we saw, this summer, a diminished number of people being able to enjoy our beaches—not least because it is a great pastime and healthy thing to be doing but also because that would have economic consequences for many of our coastal communities. The government has worked hard to get in front of that, which is why the Minister for Tourism has released our Coast is Calling campaign, in conjunction with the voucher program that is being rolled out forthwith. We have made clear, on the record, that we are open-minded with regard to other iterations of a voucher campaign in the event that this progresses into summer—which is a very real possibility indeed.

The weather over the course of late last week and the weekend may have had a positive impact on the algal bloom. We look forward to getting updated on that on Thursday, but most recent history tells us that forecasting the behaviour of the algae is a rather precarious exercise. This is dynamic; it is moving, it is changing, and that is likely to occur into the future.

As we get closer to summer we continue our preparations for a summer plan in response to the algal bloom. I have said publicly that we anticipate we would release the summer plan for the algal bloom in October, if required, but that does not stop us from making other announcements, if we see it as appropriate, between now and then.

We have seen a rapid escalation in a range of capacities within the government, particularly testing capacity and particularly around the brevetoxins. We are very pleased to see the rapid effort being applied at Agilex down in Thebarton; it is quite extraordinary what they are setting up in good time. We are constantly investing in our capacity to respond and to monitor the situation and keep South Australians updated as practically as we can.

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