Tom Venning (Grey, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise today to support the shadow minister for the environment—the member for Moncrieff, Angie Bell—in her urgent call for the environment minister to attend this chamber and explain the Albanese government's catastrophic failure in environmental management. To speak of fake outrage, how about someone show up and actually come to the electorate of Grey, where the epicentre of the algal bloom is?

The simple truth is this: the government's environmental credentials are not just in question; they are, as Ms Bell rightly said, completely washed up. Let's begin with what's unfolding right now in South Australia. For over 18 months, eminent scientists were warning of the growing risk of the toxic algal bloom. They sought meetings; they sought engagement; they sought leadership. What they received from the government was silence: no meetings, no action, no leadership.

The consequences of that neglect are being felt across South Australia, but nowhere more severely than in my electorate of Grey. The epicentre of the bloom lies in Gulf St Vincent, and it is now spreading into the Spencer Gulf, home to Port Lincoln, the seafood capital of Australia and the base of the Southern Hemisphere's largest fishing fleet. More than 14,000 marine animals have died. International experts have described the outbreak as one of the world's worst algal blooms. Our fishing and tourism industries are on their knees, and families who have made their living from the sea for generations are now watching hopelessly as their catch disappears before their eyes.

And what was Minister Watt's response? A last-minute dash to South Australia on the eve of parliament sitting—a photo opportunity dressed up as leadership. Just days earlier, he dismissed the crisis as merely a state issue, sending only a departmental official to witness the devastation. Then, last week, we saw the same pattern repeated by our prime minister. He flew into Adelaide for barely an hour and scraped together $6.2 million for South Australians, while at the same time giving $600 million to a PNG rugby team. That is not leadership; that is evasion.

I want to be clear. This disaster is not just about algae; it's about accountability. It is about a government that ignored scientists, ignored fishers, ignored local communities and ignored its own responsibility to act. The human impact is heartbreaking. I have spoken to fishers who have not caught enough fish to make pay for three or four months. They tell me they feel physically sick, not just because of the financial strain but because every day they go out into the sea and are confronted by the sight of dead or dying marine animals—garfish, squid, dolphin, shark, ray. For some species, it is as though they have disappeared entirely from the Gulf. Small family businesses in the marine scale fishery are facing financial ruin. The social and emotional toll is profound. This crisis is not just about ecosystems. It's about people. It's about livelihoods. It's about communities up and down the South Australian coastline who rely on the ocean not just for food but for their future.

The government support to date has been too little, too late. Access to assistance programs have been riddled with restrictive criteria, leaving many fishers unable to qualify. The federal government has refused to declare this disaster a national emergency or natural disaster, which would unlock the scale of funding and resources truly required. This is not an isolated issue. From recycling reform to Indigenous cultural heritage protection, from the environmental protection laws to biodiversity conservation, this government has failed to deliver on every major environmental promise it has made to the Australian people. We've seen slogans, we've heard speeches, but when it comes to substance—nothing

This is why the coalition has fought for a Senate inquiry into the algal bloom. The inquiry has bipartisan support, and it will investigate not just environmental devastation but also the government's inadequate response. But accountability must also come here to this chamber. The environment minister must explain why the government ignored scientists for 18 months. He must explain why it took the death of thousands of marine animals and the collapse of local industries to force any action. He must explain why communities like mine in the electorate of Grey have been abandoned to fend for themselves. Australians deserve better than delay, denial and disaster. They deserve a government that values science, listens to communities and protects both our environment and the livelihoods that depend upon it. The Albanese government promised leadership on the environment. Instead, it has delivered crisis after crisis. Its record is one of broken promises. That is why I support this motion. I call on the Minister for the Environment and Water to come before this House and account for the government's failures. Our communities deserve answers. Our fishers deserve support. Our environment deserves better stewardship than this government has provided.

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