Where should the funding to deal with SA's toxic algal bloom be spent?

Australia Broadcast Center

3 days ago

The federal government has pledged $14 million to assist South Australia as it grapples with a toxic algal bloom outbreak.
But just how far will that funding go and where should it be allocated?
Well that depends on who you speak to.
The bloom was first spotted in March and has resulted in dead marine life washing up on the state's shores, while also disrupting a number of industries, including fishing, aquaculture and tourism operators.
The South Australian government is expected to announce further funding today, but one mayor says what's already been pledged is just "a drop in the ocean".
Scientists and local and state governments all agree that some of the funding will need to be spend on relief measures for those in industries affected by the bloom.
Kangaroo Island Mayor Michael Pengilly said businesses along Kangaroo Island's coastline have been severely impacted by the bloom.
"Some of the things that we have to look at here are stabilising the impact on those affected, whether they be fishermen or work in the abalone industry, the tourism industry, the charter industry," Mr Pengilly told ABC Radio Adelaide.
"We may have to look at job creation projects, also mental health support. A lot of these thing happened after the [2019] fires and we've got a bit of a history of dealing with disasters.
"Our major employer at the abalone farm has about 30 people, which doesn't seem like many people in the city, but it's a big employer over here.
"They're shut down at the moment, the oyster industry is shut down here, Yorke Peninsula, Port Lincoln. Now we have the Port Wakefield area is now being impacted, the fishery out there."
Mr Pengilly said he would be meeting with state Environment Minister Susan Close today.
While he applauded her for her efforts at supporting those affected by the bloom, he said the government overall has been slow to respond.
"The state government holistically has been slow to do anything," he said.
Mike Bossley is an experienced marine scientist and researcher who has worked closely with Port Adelaide's dolphin sanctuary.
He is currently working with a group of colleagues to determine how many recent dolphin deaths may be linked to the algal bloom and hopes to have findings into that research within the next week.
While he agreed some of the federal funding should be spent on relief measures, he wants more of the money to go towards research.
"Equally, and more importantly, we have to put money into research into mitigating these blooms," he told ABC Radio Adelaide.
"We need to find ways to recover from them because they are going to keep coming."
He said being able to predict the blooms would be "only so helpful" and instead wants the focus to be around mitigating the impacts of the bloom with a look at current marine parks systems just one idea.
He said South Australia's toxic algal outbreak had "international implications" as there were marine heatwaves occurring around the world at the moment.
He pointed to an algal bloom in California killing dolphins and seals.
"The reality is this is the first time we have experienced something like this in our state, a bloom as extensive as this, and we just don't understand it well enough to make any really telling predictions," he said.
"It does seem to most of us working in science that climate change and marine heatwaves, which are a consequence of that, are just going to get worse and that's going to make these constant blooms and other issues to do with warming water."
When asked if the issue had been taken seriously enough he said: "I'm sure we will be taking it more seriously in the future, but it's easy with hindsight to say we should have known what's going to happen".
"This thing just started gradually getting worse and worse and we haven't had that before and nobody quite knew what was going to happen and what to expect."
State Opposition Leader Vincent Tarzia was also critical of the state government's response.
After relief measures to affected industries, he wants the government to commit some funding towards a royal commission.
"The premier and the government have been far too slow to respond, given the significant scale of the environmental damage that has been caused by this algal bloom," Mr Tarzia said.
"We want to understand exactly what is driving this ... there's a whole range of theories, some people are saying it's got something to do with the desal plant, others are saying it's marine heatwaves, others are saying nutrient runoffs.
"The government is spending millions and millions of dollars in bringing a climate conference here to South Australia, now we think $1 million or $2 million for a royal commission after the initial funding has gone out the door to affected people and businesses, we think that is a worthwhile investment.
"A royal commission is one of the highest levels of parliamentary scrutiny that we can apply because we don't want to see any cover-ups here."
The state government has pushed back on that demand, and has said it would prefer to spend the money supporting scientists.
Holdfast Bay Mayor Amanda Wilson, which encompasses the popular beach suburbs of Glenelg and Brighton, said the council had been forced to redirect staff away from their usual duties of fixing roads and footpaths, to clean up dead marine sea life washing up on the beaches.
She said someone has to help pay for that and hopes some of the funding might be directed that way.
"Obviously it's been a big drain on our resources and it's imperative for us to keep our beaches clean," she said.
"But we'd also be very concerned about tourism going into the summer months and how that's going to affect our tourism precincts."
While making the $14 million announcement yesterday, Federal Environment Minister Murray Watt stopped short of declaring the algal bloom a national disaster.
Premier Peter Malinauskas said while he welcomed the funding, a sum he said his government asked for, he had also hoped for a national disaster declaration.
"We've asked for $14 million which is a line to a suite of measures that we have formulated as a state government and we believe will make a difference on the ground," he said.
"We are saying as a state government, and this is where I guess there is a point of difference between us and our federal colleagues, that we believe this should be declared as a natural disaster formally. That would unlock federal funding.
"This is a natural disaster, I think it needs to be treated as a natural disaster."
Holdfast Bay Mayor Amanda Wilson said the council had also called on the government to declare a national disaster and was critical of the government's visit yesterday.
She said she had written to both Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and the Environment Minister, but was yet to formally hear back.
"The community really wants to hear from the Prime Minister and the Environment Minister what is happening. I think yesterday didn't really cover off what we wanted," she said.
"We want to have more answers about what's happening, what's caused this because in the vacuum of information conspiracy theories are taking root and I think we really need to address what the causes are and how we are going to solve this."