Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

First, I am very aware of the impact on our fishers. Obviously the gentleman you describe represents one of a number in the industry. Because this toxic bloom is lethal for finfish, that has obviously affected a lot of commercial fishing as well. There is, of course, a concern about aquaculture, depending on how far it spreads. I'm not in a position to go through the detail of the grants, because we don't administer them, but I would say we all recognise this is unprecedented in scale. It has caused the destruction of marine life. It is an environmental or ecological disaster, and it is affecting key industries. Obviously we want to work to work out why this happens and how we can avert it happening again.