logo
SA algae crisis ‘incredibly disturbing' but federal government won't declare natural disaster, Watt says

SA algae crisis ‘incredibly disturbing' but federal government won't declare natural disaster, Watt says

The Guardian3 days ago
Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young says $14m in federal funding is 'nowhere near what will be needed' to support South Australian communities dealing with the state's algal bloom catastrophe.
The environment minister, Murray Watt, announced the federal assistance package on Monday while visiting South Australia to see the impacts of a toxic algal bloom that for months has caused mass deaths of marine life across the state's beaches.
Watt said the bloom and its impacts were 'incredibly disturbing'. But he stopped short of declaring the event a natural disaster, saying the catastrophe did not meet the relevant definitions under the federal natural disaster framework.
Hanson-Young said the criteria used to declare such events should be examined.
As parliament returns, the South Australia-based senator also said she would push for an inquiry into the disaster to examine issues including the federal and state government responses to the event.
'South Australians have been crying out for weeks and months for federal action on this, so I'm glad to see the federal environment minister finally get to South Australia,' Hanson-Young told the ABC's Afternoon Briefing on Monday: '$14 million is good but nowhere near what will be needed.'
Get Guardian Australia environment editor Adam Morton's Clear Air column as an email
Asked if the bloom was a national disaster, the Nationals leader, David Littleproud, said, 'obviously it's one of significance'.
'I think we need to broaden those definitions, and as a parliament we should do that,' he told Sky News on Monday. He also urged Labor to pursue other measures that would provide financial support to agricultural workers affected.
On Monday night, Anthony Albanese said federal funding had been timed 'appropriately' given the event was unfolding 'primarily in state waters'.
'Events do occur in our environment,' the prime minister told ABC's 7.30. 'What is important is that there be a response. We're responding, giving support to the South Australian government.'
The bloom of the microalgae species karenia mikimotoi was identified off South Australia's Fleurieu Peninsula in March, and grew to more than 4400 sq km, close to the size of Kangaroo Island.
It has been breaking up in recent weeks, spreading north into Spencer Gulf, south into the Coorong wetlands and along Adelaide's beaches in Gulf St Vincent into the Port River, killing tens of thousands of marine animals.
The money is likely to be used to pay for the clean-up of dead marine life from SA's beaches, support impacted businesses, bolster community awareness about the bloom and invest in science and research to better understand the incident.
'There's no doubting whatsoever that this is a very serious environmental event facing South Australia,' Watt told reporters on Monday.
'We are in uncharted waters here.'
Asked if the bloom and its impact should be declared a natural disaster, Watt said it was not possible under the existing definition despite calls from scientists, the Greens and SA's Labor premier.
A natural disaster declaration would trigger special federal assistance measures to support individuals, businesses and communities in their recovery.
'We have managed outside the usual natural disaster framework to marshal the type of resources that South Australia has asked for,' Watt said.
'One of the difficulties has been understanding exactly what its impacts are and what sort of response is required.
'We won't solve this overnight and we are, to some extent, relying on weather conditions to help disperse the algal bloom.'
Darcie Carruthers, the South Australia-based nature campaigner for the Australian Conservation Foundation, welcomed Watt's funding announcement but said it was overdue and more needed to be done.
'The federal government needs to focus on the causes of this economic and environmental disaster to prevent it from happening again,' Carruthers said.
'A marine heatwave and the water from the disastrous 2023 Murray Darling floods are both factors that have allowed the algae to take hold and both warming waters and floods are supercharged by burning fossil fuels.'
Paul Gamblin, the chief executive of the Australian Marine Conservation Society, said the devastating bloom shows
'nowhere is immune from the accelerating impacts of climate change', and called for
' major coordinated response that matches the scale of this emergency'.
'This unnatural, shocking event needs all hands on deck,' Gamblin said.
The algal bloom is naturally occurring, but the state's environment department has listed potential contributing factors including a marine heatwave that started in 2024, when sea temperatures were about 2.5C warmer than usual, combined with calm conditions.
Another was the 2022/23 River Murray flood that washed extra nutrients into the sea followed by an unprecedented cold-water upwelling in the summer of 2023/24 that brought nutrient-rich water to the surface.
Marine ecologist Dominic McAfee said the mortality in most heavily impacted areas was 'extremely confronting'.
'It seems like almost everything has died,' Dr McAfee, from the University of Adelaide's Environment Institute, told AAP.
'The impacts we're seeing now could just be the start of something more prolonged.'
Dr McAfee said it had been hoped winter winds and swells would 'disperse and nullify' the algae bloom, but this had not happened.
'And there's a chance that it will continue for many more months.'
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Howard-era Asio questioning powers ‘never intended to be permanent', Australia's human rights chief warns
Howard-era Asio questioning powers ‘never intended to be permanent', Australia's human rights chief warns

The Guardian

timean hour ago

  • The Guardian

Howard-era Asio questioning powers ‘never intended to be permanent', Australia's human rights chief warns

The boss of Australia's human rights commission has questioned Labor's moves to make Asio's powers for compulsory questioning permanent, warning a planned expansion of the 9/11-era laws must include robust safeguards for individuals. The home affairs minister, Tony Burke, introduced two pieces of legislation this week designed to remove so-called sunset provisions on the domestic spy agencies' powers to compel cooperation. The rules act as effective expiry dates on the powers and require parliament to reconsider their reach on a regular basis. Labor will also add sabotage, promotion of communal violence, attacks on the defence system and serious threats to Australia's border security to the rules for compulsory questioning. Under the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation Act, intelligence operatives have powers to issue a questioning warrant requiring a person as young as 14 to give information or produce items that may assist in a serious investigation. Sign up: AU Breaking News email Introduced after the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks in the US, the powers have hardly been used since 2020, with just four warrants served on three people, in counter-terror and espionage cases. The human rights commissioner, Lorraine Finlay, said Asio should have the necessary powers to protect Australians, but that the current compulsory questioning powers are extraordinary in their intrusions on a number of fundamental human rights, 'and were never intended to be permanent'. 'The two bills introduced by the government propose to not only extend, and then repeal entirely, the existing sunset provision to make these compulsory questioning powers permanent, but also in some respects to expand the scope of the existing powers,' she said. Finlay said the commission would closely consider the proposed changes and engage with an inquiry expected to be run by parliament's joint committee on intelligence and security (PJCIS). She said any limitations on human rights must be necessary and proportionate, and come with 'robust safeguards'. The Greens justice spokesperson, David Shoebridge, said the laws should be considered by a transparent and open inquiry, not run by the PJCIS, which is dominated by Labor and the Coalition. 'Making permanent these oppressive Howard-era powers is already deeply troubling, but they are going even further and expanding when and how they can be used,' he said. 'History shows that once governments get these intrusive powers they never want to let them go, and that is exactly what we see here with the sunset provisions now being stripped out. 'Asio wants these powers and the major parties are falling over themselves to deliver them through a stitched-up secret parliamentary inquiry regardless of what the public thinks.' Sign up to Breaking News Australia Get the most important news as it breaks after newsletter promotion Shoebridge said parliamentary scrutiny of the plan must include public hearings. 'There are real questions about how these new powers could be used to target legitimate protesters and critics of the government, harsh immigration laws and the defence establishment.' The powers are scheduled to sunset on 7 September this year. They will be temporarily extended, for 18 months, to allow parliament to consider the wider bill, which would make the powers permanent. Introducing the changes to parliament this week, Burke said Asio should retain the powers 'to navigate an increasingly complex, challenging and changing security environment and deliver on its mission to protect the safety of Australia and Australians'. When the laws were first introduced, Howard government attorney general Daryl Williams described them as 'extraordinary' and 'a measure of last resort'.

Agreement on Hillsborough Law could come in weeks, peers told
Agreement on Hillsborough Law could come in weeks, peers told

The Independent

time2 hours ago

  • The Independent

Agreement on Hillsborough Law could come in weeks, peers told

The Government is 'hopeful' it can come to an agreement on a Hillsborough Law with the families impacted by the disaster 'in the coming weeks and months', Parliament has heard. Speaking from the Government frontbench, Lord Ponsonby of Shulbrede said talks 'have been going positively', as peers raised concerns the duty of candour element of the proposed law is being watered down. Labour peer Baroness Chakrabarti said the families of the 97 football fans who died following the 1989 incident feel 'less positive' about its discussions with the Government. The deadly crush occurred during the FA Cup semi-final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest at the football ground in Sheffield. The proposed law would require public bodies to have a duty of candour, meaning they would need to co-operate with official inquiries and tell the truth in the aftermath of major disasters – or face criminal sanctions. A previous deadline set by Labour, that the Bill would be passed before the anniversary of the Hillsborough disaster in April, has been missed. The Government had said it needed more time to finalise the Bill. A draft Bill has been criticised by campaigners, including the Hillsborough Law Now group, for not containing pledges previously made – including the duty of candour. Lady Chakrabarti told the upper chamber on Thursday: 'I'm grateful to (the minister), as always, for repeating the Government's commitment to introduce Hillsborough Law, but I'm afraid that the families and their representatives feel a little less positive about the engagement they had so far. 'Some worry that they've been briefed against to the newspapers, and generally speaking, they worry about the dilution that … Lord Storey has warned against.' Lord Ponsonby said he was 'sorry to hear that', adding: 'I am aware of very recent interaction with the families in Liverpool, and what I understand is those talks have been going positively, and it is very much hoped that we able to reach some form of agreement in the coming weeks and months.' He had earlier said: 'Since March, we have listened to stakeholder feedback to ensure that we deliver the best Bill possible. 'This engagement has been constructive and progress has been made. Engagement is ongoing and will continue over the summer.' Liberal Democrat peer Lord Storey said: 'Would he give a clear commitment there will be no watering down of that duty of candour intent when the Bill is published?' Lord Ponsonby replied: 'The Prime Minister has made a personal commitment to the affected families to work with them constructively to come up with an appropriate law. 'Regarding the duty of candour, the Government is clear that what happened following the Hillsborough disaster must never happen again. 'Under the Hillsborough Law, public officials will be bound by duties of candour with criminal and professional consequences. 'We are committed to achieving a true cultural change. The Bill cannot change culture on its own, but it can and should act as a catalyst, and we remain committed to launching a programme to encourage cultural change alongside the Bill.'

Australian women win right to sue Qatar Airways over bodily searches
Australian women win right to sue Qatar Airways over bodily searches

The Independent

time4 hours ago

  • The Independent

Australian women win right to sue Qatar Airways over bodily searches

Five Australian women who were forcibly removed from a Qatar Airways flight and subjected to invasive physical exams at Doha airport in 2020 have won the right to sue the airline directly. A federal court overturned a previous ruling that dismissed their case. According to their lawyer, the women, whose names remain confidential, were among dozens of women taken off multiple flights and subjected to nonconsensual bodily searches after a newborn was found abandoned at the Hamad International Airport in Doha in October 2020. The five Australian women were ordered off Qatar Airways flight 908 to Sydney and taken to ambulances on the tarmac where nurses conducted physical examinations without their consent. 'She told me to pull my pants down and that [she] needed to examine my vagina,' one woman said at the time. 'I said, 'I'm not doing that', and she didn't explain anything to me. She just kept saying, 'We need to see it, we need to see it'.' The incident triggered global outrage and was condemned by Australia's then foreign minister as a 'grossly disturbing, offensive, concerning set of events.' An Australian government spokesperson said at the time that up to 10 flights could have been affected by the searches. The five women had sought to sue Qatar Airways for damages related to 'unlawful physical contact' and pursued claims of assault and false imprisonment and battery against the airport operator, Matar, and the Qatar Civil Aviation Authority. But federal court judge John Halley dismissed the case against the airline and the aviation regulator ruling that the alleged assaults took place off the plane and were not carried out by airline staff. He described the idea that airline staff could have intervened as 'fanciful, trifling, implausible, improbable, and tenuous'. The women appealed to the full federal court, comprising a panel of three judges, arguing the invasive searches occurred during the process of disembarkation and that the airline should therefore be held liable. The full court agreed, ruling on Thursday that Justice Halley had erred in summarily dismissing the women's claims. 'There is no sufficiently high degree of certainty that what happened to the appellants in the ambulance could not ultimately be found to have been in 'the course of any of the operations of embarking or disembarking'. It is therefore not an issue apt to be decided at the stage of summary dismissal,' Justice Angus Stewart said. 'It is also an error to conclude at this stage of the proceeding that Matar's duty of care cannot possibly extend to the circumstances in and around the ambulance.' The court ordered Qatar Airways and Matar to pay the costs of the appeal. At the time of the incident, the Qatari government defended its actions saying they were taken in response to the 'shocking and appalling attempt to kill' a newborn girl who was found wrapped in plastic and discarded in a bin at the airport. The measures were aimed at stopping the 'perpetrators' from fleeing the country, the authorities said while offering an apology for any distress caused to passengers. The total number of women subjected to the searches remains unclear. The Australian women were among 13 taken off Qatar Airways flight 908 alone. Damian Sturzaker, the lawyer for the five women, said they were happy with the decision. 'Our clients endured a traumatic experience on that night in Doha, and they deserve to have their day in court and compensation for their suffering,' he said, according to The Australian. The women had brought claims of negligence, assault and false imprisonment against Matar and the aviation regulator. While Thursday's ruling dismissed the case against the regulator, it allowed the women to amend and continue their case against Matar. Mr Sturzaker said they would review the court's reasoning to determine whether there was scope to appeal the decision regarding the regulator to Australia's High Court.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store