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

Contents

Algal Bloom

Mr BASHAM (Finniss) (15:21): My question is to the Minister for Environment. What critical thresholds are there for marine life and human health for the harmful algal bloom Karenia species, and what locations were over those thresholds at the most recent algal bloom update?

The Hon. L.P. HOOD (Adelaide—Minister for Climate, Environment and Water) (15:22): I thank the honourable member for his question. All of this information can be easily accessed from the government's algalbloom.sa.gov.au website. It provides cell counts for various areas, so I would very much encourage the honourable member to avail himself of that information. As we said, we have numerous sources of information for the community and for the local MPs to access. You can go on the website, and I might even encourage the Hon. Frank Pangallo in the other place to go on the website—he might learn a few things.

We also have our hotline that we have launched as a one-stop shop for South Australians to access the range of information that they might need. That hotline is running seven days a week, including public holidays. Importantly, it is also for those wanting to report dead marine life or sick or injured wildlife, and for people who might have mental health concerns: it is important that they can be answered 24/7.

As we have been saying, we have our weekly algal bloom taskforce which provides an update, followed by a press conference, to inform the media. We have our algal bloom website and we also have our hotline. I very much encourage the local member to avail himself of those information sources.