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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2025-06-05 Daily Xml
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South Coast Algal Bloom

The Hon. C. BONAROS (15:00): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for Primary Industries and Regional Development a question about the algal bloom.

Leave granted.

The Hon. C. BONAROS: As was referred to a few moments ago, about a week ago it was reported that SA Health and Chief Public Health Officer, Professor Spurrier, would consult with GPs on the algal bloom crisis following revelations coastal GPs were dealing with a surge in algae-related illnesses and had not received support from SA Health. Yesterday, in response to a question in this place, the minister stated:

We are advised, and the public health advice has been out there, that, if people, for example, have been walking along the beach where there is the foam and they have an allergic reaction on their skin, as long as they wash it off quickly it generally will not last for a long period of time. So the short answer is that there has been cross-sector work on all the aspects of algal bloom that we have information on.

A few moments ago, the minister referred again to the advice that has been issued by Professor Spurrier. My questions to the minister are:

1. Did the public health advice that she refers to in fact come about as a result of lobbying and complaints raised by the RACGP on behalf of its members?

2. Do PIRSA or SA Health's social media sites, which contain regular updates on these sorts of issues, contain any information regarding the algal bloom outbreak, including health advice?

The Hon. C.M. SCRIVEN (Minister for Primary Industries and Regional Development, Minister for Forest Industries) (15:02): I thank the honourable member for her question. Some parts of her question relate to the Department for Health and therefore obviously are not something that I can make a direct comment on. What I can refer to, however, is that we had two round tables, or forums, the first one with local mayors. That included a number of agencies, both federal and state. We then had a more recent one with both mayors and MPs in areas affected by the algal bloom.

I know that there were updates issued. I believe there were some before that initial round table, but some of the feedback from there was that they needed to be better communicated. From memory, part of that was to indicate that having links on our sites, whether it be PIRSA, whether it be EPA or whether it be DEW, would be helpful, and my understanding is that that occurred.

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