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

Mr BASHAM (Finniss) (15:35): Again, my question is to the Minister for Environment. Is brevetoxin toxic to animals or humans?

The Hon. L.P. HOOD (Adelaide—Minister for Climate, Environment and Water) (15:35): When we have been talking about the harmful algal bloom we know that it is impacting animals that have gills. When it comes to our marine life in the oceans we have been seeing a lot of impact on our fish stocks in regard to the harmful algal bloom. We know that it is only an irritant to people and so the health advice has been quite consistent in regard to the fact that it can create irritants to South Australians. The health advice has been that they should move away from the area if they feel those irritants, whether or not they're in the water, and they are being encouraged to rinse off in fresh water.

We undertook some testing of foam which indicated that some of those toxins which we believe—and that is when we updated the health advice when it came to people who might suffer from asthma. The advice in that regard has been to make sure that you're updating your asthma plan and that you are carrying your medication when you are attending a beach environment that might have the foam present.

We have been very consistent, though, with our health advice, and that is that if you attend a beach that might have discoloured water or foam avoid that area or, if you choose to swim or if you are perhaps walking your dog along the beach and it comes into contact with that water or foam it is important that you rinse off in fresh water. To be consistent, in terms of the advice for people who have asthma, make sure that you are carrying your preventative medication, that you are having your preventative medication, that you have your Ventolin with you, and that you are updating your asthma plan.

As we have been saying, we have put an extensive amount of funding into our summer plan, and that is to make sure that the community has all the information that they need in order to plan their day at the beach, to support our coastal communities and, importantly, our small businesses, and also build resilience in our environment towards environmental recovery.

We very much want this to be a team South Australia effort. It's really important that when we see misinformation in the community that we call it out. I don't think that we have seen that on the other side of the house, particularly with members in the other place. This really needs to be based on the evidence, based on the science and the facts. Whilst members on the other side, particularly those in the other place, choose to spread misinformation when it comes to the harmful algal bloom, all they are hurting are the small businesses and the local communities that rely on our coastline.

I would very much encourage the other side to get behind the summer plan. There is $102.5 million dedicated to the plan to support our local coastal communities, supporting our small businesses, and making sure that people can have that great South Australian summer on our beaches.

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