HANSARD
SITTING CALENDAR
SEARCH
LIVE BROADCAST
Hansard Dynamic Subject Index
House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2025-11-13 Daily Xml
Contents
Xml

Grievance Debate

Algal Bloom

The Hon. V.A. TARZIA (Hartley—Leader of the Opposition) (15:11): We know that the Christmas Pageant was last weekend and we know that Santa Claus is coming to town but, unfortunately, all that the people of South Australia are getting for Christmas from this Labor government is debt, blowouts and broken promises.

This week the Auditor-General's Report tabled in parliament laid bare the Labor debt bomb awaiting future generations. State debt will soar to nearly $50 billion over the next four years which threatens to force, it says, potential service cuts and also suck government spending from where it is actually needed most. We know that at the moment this government is spending more servicing the interest on state debt than we do on our own police force. This is despite all the apparent concern about spending from the Premier when he was on this side of the house.

The Auditor-General points out that SA's interest expenses as a percentage of gross state product will be higher than basically all other states. Only a new Liberal government would unleash the true economic potential of our state. This week the Premier and his arrogant Labor government were also at pains to excuse themselves for their failure to act fast enough when reports of the algal bloom first arose earlier this year and devastated coastal communities right throughout our state.

The federal Senate inquiry report into algal blooms in this state was published this week and it spelt out in clear terms the absolute failure of this Labor government to respond to the toxic algal bloom fast enough. The report revealed a mess of delay, handballing of responsibility, internal miscommunication and, of course, the public health response that at one stage was described as haphazard. Within the document we find astonishingly that:

The federal government was not formally advised by the state government about the impact of the algal bloom until the end of May, almost three months after it was first noticed.

While coastal communities suffered, what did the state Labor government do? They took weeks to seek disaster relief funding, with the report further revealing that the state government did not apply for National Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements until 18 July 2025, three weeks after the algal bloom was confirmed in some parts. Meanwhile, local councils were left footing the bill. As the report says, local governments were forced to bear the brunt of clean-ups at a significant financial cost.

Then we come to the issue of communication. We all remember the Premier confidently telling ABC radio in October that a lot of people referred to the algal bloom as the toxic algal bloom and he said it is not toxic. Yet, the government's own website sometimes said otherwise. Respected estuarine ecologist, Faith Coleman, said that the harmful algal bloom is undisputably toxic. She said:

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 state government finally admit the primary algae was a different species entirely: Karenia cristata. It took them eight months to work that out. We saw what this did in places like South Africa where it has ripped through parts of industries, especially abalone. The report says that this has had the effect of further diminishing trust from a wary public.

What has become abundantly clear is that we need accountability in this state. We need it more than ever. Our coastal communities were not just let down, they have been absolutely kept in the dark and gaslit. The Liberal Party is calling for a royal commission into the cause, the impact and the response to the harmful algal bloom to get to the bottom of it to make sure that we are more resilient for next time. Only the Liberal Party has a plan to restore public confidence and trust, and we have also unveiled more of our plan to act where Labor has failed.

Recently, we announced our plan to deliver the biggest tax cut in the history of our state by phasing out stamp duty completely by 2041 but also to increase housing supply. We recently also announced a tough new 'break bail, face jail' policy to fight back against crime in our community. Today, we have again seen reports of devastating criminal activity in our community with a government that has gone soft on law and order in our suburbs.

We want to ensure that serious offenders face serious consequences and we have backed it up. We have backed it up with new recruitment and retention policies to ensure that we have the best police force that is properly resourced so that South Australians can rely on it. These are bold policies. We are ambitious for the future of our state and will keep releasing more policies into the future.

PARLIAMENTARY BUSINESS
MEMBERS
GET INVOLVED
ABOUT PARLIAMENT
VISIT
LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL
HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY
CONTACT