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

Mr PATTERSON (Morphett) (14:57): My question is again to the Premier. What does the government anticipate the estimated dollar amount of foregone economic activity will be in the Fleurieu Peninsula as a result of Surfing Australia cancelling their 2025 Australian Junior Surfing Titles?

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS (Croydon—Premier) (14:57): We will get some advice on that question. That is something we did contemplate when increasing our offer of support to the events organiser prior to their decision to cancel it. It also speaks to why it is so important that we do two things.

One is to invest in the drivers of economic activity and the way our coastal communities have been affected: hence the Coast is Calling campaign and the voucher program we have released. It is why it is also really important that every member of this place who has access to informing public opinion treats that responsibility seriously, because it would be exceptionally unfortunate if the economic impact on coastal communities were larger than it needed to be.

Down on the Southern Fleurieu at the moment there is no reason why people cannot enjoy the coast. Our most recent advice is that there is no algae down there. People can enjoy the beach, they can enjoy walking along the beach, they can enjoy surfing in the water if they so choose, because there is no algae down there—and it is really important that every person in this place does not seek to unnecessarily catastrophise the algal bloom.

I do not say those words in any way, shape or form to diminish the algal bloom; where it exists it represents a real challenge, and it is having a serious impact on those communities, for reasons that are obvious. But where the algal bloom doesn't exist and where people are suffering the impacts of that, this is exclusively because of perception, which is propelled through misinformation and disinformation. We won't be pushing that on this side of the house, and I don't think anybody anywhere else should be doing that.

We want people to visit the Southern Fleurieu or parts of Eyre Peninsula and Yorke Peninsula that are completely unaffected by the algal bloom, or KI. For those places that are affected we want to provide, where we can, economic assistance to families to go there and enjoy them in safe circumstances.

We have a collective responsibility. It would be an exceptionally unfortunate set of circumstances where businesses and coastal communities were suffering hardship as a result of the algal bloom even though there is no algae there. Think about how perverse that would be. It would be like providing drought assistance to areas that aren't affected by a drought. It would be like providing flood assistance to areas where there is no flood or bushfire assistance to where there is no bushfire. We don't want to end up in that situation. Others might be motivated to do that; we aren't, because that would be exceptionally unfortunate for those communities but also for taxpayers. That is why we are dealing with this as deliberately and as thoughtfully as we can.

For communities on the Southern Fleurieu, I stand here as Premier of the state and say to all South Australians: get down there. Most recently, there isn't any algae. There is no reason why Victor Harbor shouldn't be doing quite well at the moment, or as well as it can in the cooler months. But certainly as we get closer to the summer months, it is our sincere hope—I hope it is everyone's hope—that we don't see the algae returning to these communities, so that summer down there can be as normal as possible.

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