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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2025-10-14 Daily Xml
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Question Time

Algal Bloom

The Hon. V.A. TARZIA (Hartley—Leader of the Opposition) (15:01): My question is to the Premier. Does the Premier stand by his comments that the harmful algal bloom is not toxic? With your leave, sir, and that of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

The Hon. V.A. TARZIA: During an ABC radio interview yesterday, the Premier said:

A lot of people refer to the algal bloom as the 'toxic algal bloom'—it's not toxic.

This is in stark contrast to respected environmental scientist Faith Coleman, who was quoted on ABC News last night as saying:

We're getting a lot of mixed messages throughout this bloom—and we know that it is toxic to fish because they're dying.

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS (Croydon—Premier, Minister for Defence and Space Industries) (15:02): I thank the Leader of the Opposition for his question. I will take the opportunity to again repeat the fact that the advice that the government has been given consistently throughout this exercise is that the scientifically and universally applied scientific description of the algal bloom is the 'harmful algal bloom', not the characterisation as a toxic algal bloom. In terms of the supposed toxic nature of the algal bloom, we make the point that it is not toxic to humans. That has been the consistent public health advice.

On our side of the house, we have a determined principled position to ensure that the information we put out in the public realm is consistent with the public health and scientific advice that we receive as a government. As I have said previously in this place, we think that is really important. The South Australian public relies on institutions, including government, to pass on accurately information that we receive.

We have no interest in misrepresenting the advice that we receive. Why would we do that? That would make no sense, either in a policy sense or a political one. It would be self-defeating. We are simply relaying the position that we consistently hear through our appropriate sources of information. We, of course, want to make sure there is rigour around that process. We test, we ask, we validate, we inquire, and of course that approach stands in stark contrast—stark contrast—to the approach applied by those opposite.

We know that there is a rush to do the exact opposite on the opposite side of the house. We know that the Liberal Party are very comfortable in having members—

Members interjecting:

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: We know the Liberal Party are very comfortable in suggesting that they know the science better than senior scientists within government. We know they feel very comfortable saying, 'Well, we've got the information, we will table the information, we will give you the sources.' Then they do the sources, then they provide the sources and they turn out to be completely inaccurate, not reflecting real sources. I don't know if they are fabrications. Either way, what we know is no-one checked it, no-one validated it. People just ran in and decided to submit them into the parliament. It is mind-blowing. That is the standard they set.

The reprimand from the Leader of the Opposition to Mr Pangallo when he acknowledged that he had done these actions was 'nothing to see here', just the show moves on, Mr Pangallo continues to roll up to the Budget and Finance Committee and does his thing. So that's their standard. That's your standard.

Heaven forbid, if you get the opportunity to serve on the Treasury benches what actions you would take. Would you start dismissing SARDI? Would you relegate PIRSA? Would you ignore the advice? What happens when the next drought comes along and SA Water is saying time to turn on the desal. The opposition leader is going to be out there saying, 'I don't know; Frank, what do you think?' Let's turn off South Australia's drinking water because Frank's got another idea. This isn't a joke. In government, you have to make serious decisions based on science and evidence and that is what we will continue to do.

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