Anthony Albanese, Peter Malinauskas and the national media have all failed to confront SA’s algal bloom disaster | David Penberthy

The same crowd blasting Scott Morrison’s indifference to the 2019 bushfires are suddenly silent on this climate-linked disaster, writes David Penberthy.

• Shock never seen before pics of algal bloom

Make no mistake. If South Australia’s algal bloom crisis was unfolding on Sydney’s beaches, Anthony Albanese and Tanya Plibersek would be on the first bus to Bondi to push sting rays back out to sea.

This would be a national story commanding the attention of everyone from the Prime Minister down.

But our national political leadership – shamefully also the eastern states-dominated national media – has shown almost zero interest in an event which all the experts say is a disaster without precedent.

The same people who lambasted Scott Morrison for his slothful indifference to the 2019 bushfires have been sitting on their hands amid a crisis that’s been likened to an underwater bushfire fuelled by surging water temperatures.

With every inch of coastal Adelaide now represented by the federal Labor Party, where have these MPs been in representing our interests on this question?

There are only two conclusions you can draw. They have either done nothing, or nothing effective, in terms of getting this crisis the national attention it deserves.

Minister for Environment and Water Tanya Plibersek and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese during Question Time at Parliament House in Canberra. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

One of the most galling political stories I’ve read in a while was penned earlier this month by Canberra press gallery veteran Phil Coorey. Coorey got his start as a journalist with The Advertiser, we worked together in the Canberra bureau in the late ’90s, and in his current role as national political editor for The Australian Financial Review, he is without doubt one of the most authoritative voices covering national affairs.

The piece he wrote for the AFR documenting the federal Labor government’s indifference to the algal bloom was a damning demonstration of how our federation is effectively a joke.

The piece revealed how, in the same week that Canberra confirmed its $3.5 billion contribution to the Brisbane Olympics build, it had again refused a request from the nation’s leading marine scientists for a $4 million a year, 10-year study into the worsening situation with the algal bloom.

The really galling feature of Coorey’s piece was that it proved the Albanese government was warned as long ago as October 2023 about the looming catastrophe and did precisely bugger all about it.

Runners pass a dead male snapper washes up on Adelaide’s Glenelg Beach as the toxic algal bloom continues to wreak havoc on marine life. Picture: Tracey Nearmy/Getty Images

A line of dead southern fiddler rays lie on Glenelg Beach on July 13. Picture: Tracey Nearmy/Getty Images

More than a dozen marine scientists wrote to then environment minister Tanya Plibersek that month warning that upcoming marine heatwaves threatened mass fish kills in SA which could lead to the extinction of species and jeopardise our fishing industry.

The scientists were requesting $40 million over 10 years for a major research effort into the causes of the catastrophe and possible mitigation strategies.

The request to Ms Plibersek went unheeded and no federal assistance was forthcoming.

Fast forward to February this year when, exactly in line with the scientists’ predictions, a 2.5C increase in local sea temperatures turned our ocean into a graveyard as fish, rays and seahorses started washing up dead and dying from suffocation.

The scientists again wrote to the federal government to the current Environment Minister Murray Watt appealing again for help.

Not only was the funding request rejected a second time, to his enduring shame Mr Watt didn’t even agree to the scientists’ simple request for a meeting. Just useless.

Proving you can take the man out of Peterborough but can’t take Peterborough out of the man, this is some of what our fiery South Aussie expat had to say about our national priorities in the Fin Review: “We were insulted this week with the vacuous national media coverage of heavy rain and wind in Sydney when a more serious climate-related event was unfolding elsewhere.” Bloody oath to that.

With the algal bloom crisis having played out for months, it’s worth asking whether the Malinauskas government has acted with enough focus and urgency in its response to this marine apocalypse.

I think that Environment Minister and Deputy Premier Susan Close has been playing a valiant lone hand in dealing with the problem.

Peter Malinauskas has failed to grab the issue with both hands. He has failed to lead on it or take carriage of it.

Unlike Whyalla, which he rightly identified as a local and national catastrophe and worked diligently to address, Mr Malinauskas has been a largely absent figure in any material sense on the algal bloom.

Indeed much of the state government’s response has been simply to hope that the weather somehow sorts things out. That hasn’t happened.

We have also seen the logically challenged suggestion from the state government that while the algal bloom is without precedent, in hindsight it would have been a good idea for the fishing industry to insure against it.

SA Premier Peter Malinauskas has failed to tackle the algal bloom crisis with both hands. Picture: Roy VanDerVegt

Who is going to seek insurance for something that has never happened before?

South Australia has been let down badly on this issue.

There is a blueprint for action. It’s been sitting right under Canberra’s nose since October 2023.

I fail to see why none of our federal MPs have done anything effective to get this onto the desk of the Prime Minister.

I fail to see why the Premier, who makes much of his friendship with the PM, has also been unable to arouse any federal interest.

And one snide point that goes to priorities – while I know the scientists are seeking federal cash, the amount of money they’re after is the same SA has earmarked to remodel a perfectly serviceable golf course.

With the Premier and the PM working together to ensure Adelaide hosts the COP climate summit, the algal bloom at least presents us with a great opportunity to showcase our unique marine wildlife to the world.

You can see all of it, from seadragons to sting rays, gasping for air and blood leeching from their eyes, all the way from North Haven to Normanville.

Originally published as Anthony Albanese, Peter Malinauskas and the national media have all failed to confront SA’s algal bloom disaster | David Penberthy