Louise Miller-Frost (Boothby, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I wanted to give the House a brief update on the unprecedented algal bloom affecting much of the South Australian coast. Of course, we've had short-term algal blooms in South Australia before, and they occur around Australia and internationally from time to time, and they usually resolve within a matter of weeks. This algal bloom started south of Adelaide in Mayo in March, and initially it was also expected to last a couple of weeks. But it didn't, and it grew. The algal bloom is now affecting metropolitan beaches, coastal waters around Yorke and Eyre Peninsula and Kangaroo Island. The bloom is twice the size of the ACT, affecting over 4,000 kilometres of coastline, and, in places, it's about 20-metres deep.

Scientists identify three major causes: nutrient-rich floodwaters from the Murray floods; an unprecedented upwelling of nutrient-rich waters from deep off the continental shelf, caused by changing ocean currents; and a marine heatwave of around 2½ degrees. This has been complicated by a long, warm summer with calm weather and a late winter onset which meant the waters were relatively still. We've been warned of climate change and marine heatwaves decimating marine environments for a long time, and, like the apocryphal frog in warm water, we haven't paid enough attention to the early warning signs, so now we have a late warning sign. What is happening in South Australia is what we were warned about. While those opposite squabble about net zero and whether climate change exists or is worth responding to, our marine environment is dying. Dolphins, sharks, rays, skates, fish, squid, penguins, turtles and shellfish are dying. Their carcasses are washing up on our beaches. Under the water, the reef and seagrasses are now a barren, sludgy wasteland.

This is obviously having significant effects on my community as well. Local residents are devastated by the marine carnage they see. We love our beaches and we love our marine life. People are avoiding the beach because of the reaction to the algal bloom, which in humans causes sneezing and watery eyes. It's also affecting our economy. South Australia is renowned for its quality seafood industries—bluefin tuna, King George whiting and renowned Coffin Bay oysters just to name a few. All are suffering downturns in catches, and some of the aquaculture industries are facing closures. An oyster farm in Cowell on the Eyre Peninsula announced its closure today. Commercial fishers are experiencing significant declines in catches. Our tourism industry is affected. A local boat tour operator told me they've had pretty much no income since March. A recreational fishing shop told me their income has dropped by 75 per cent.

An algal bloom of this scale and this duration is unprecedented, and, unfortunately, the scientists can't tell us how or when it will end. There's no cure that we can apply—nothing we can add to the water, no process to remove the algae and nothing we can do to protect the animals. The federal and state governments have jointly committed $28 million to provide support, and that's up to $100,000 for seafood businesses and up to $10,000 for other businesses—money to help with the clean-up of the beaches and for research to try and find how we can prevent this happening again in the future and what can be done to remediate the marine environment after this is over.

I know what my community wants is for the animals to stop dying. They want a cure. They want a fix. And there is nothing in the short term that will make a difference. But this is a sign that we need to continue our action on climate change. Our energy transition, which has been supercharged under this government—80 large-scale renewable projects approved and 130 more in the pipeline. The home battery subsidy will help fast-track the change and make your energy bill significantly cheaper. The faster we transition our energy system, the faster we get off fossil fuels. Climate change is not a theory. It's not fiction. If you want to see the future under climate change, come and see our beaches. This is not the time for grandstanding about net zero; now is the time we should be racing for solutions. The impacts of climate change we were warned about are happening now. They're happening on my beaches. They are impossible to ignore, or, at least, they should be impossible to ignore.

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