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

Climate change is an existential threat to our way of life, the environment, our health and our economy. In South Australia we are seeing the impacts very directly. An algal plaque twice the size of the ACT and up to 20 metres deep is decimating the marine environment up and down the coast. Fish, dolphins, rays and sharks are washing up on the beach, dead. There is murky brown water and a thick foam on what are usually beautiful beaches. Commercial fisheries, the recreational fishing industry and tourism are all feeling the brunt, and we don't know when or how it will end.

This is not an early warning of climate change; this is a late warning. Scientists tell us there are three factors behind this algal bloom: Murray floodwaters pushing nutrients into the gulf; an upwelling of nutrient-rich water from deep off the continental shelf, caused by changing ocean currents; and a 2½ degree rise in seawater temperatures. Climate change is involved in all three of these factors.

The Minister for the Environment and Water, Murray Watt, and I met with the Premier and the SA environment minister, and, this week, state and federal governments have jointly funded a $28 million package for clean-up and recovery, research and industry support. I also thank the Minister for Emergency Management and the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, with whom I've been working on this for some time.

This algal bloom is unprecedented and we just don't know how long it will last and what the further impacts will be, but it underscores the urgency of climate action.