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Speaker 1: Five double A Nice with Matthew Pantalis. All right, let's

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Speaker 1: talk algall bloom because, as you would have heard on

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Speaker 1: five double A News and other news sources as well,

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Speaker 1: the committee in investigating the bloom, where it came from,

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Speaker 1: what we can do about it moving forward, all the

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Speaker 1: rest of it. Is probably gobsmack to have heard yesterday

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Speaker 1: that one of the chief scientists responsible for testing waters

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Speaker 1: for algall bloom was on vacation for a month, and

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Speaker 1: he's entitled to be on leave, but it seems everyone

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Speaker 1: else sat on their hands. That's just unbelievable. Somebody needs

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Speaker 1: to explain government wise exactly what is going on with

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Speaker 1: that head of the committee that heard the evidence from

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Speaker 1: the Green Supper House, MP Robert Simms on the line, Robert,

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Speaker 1: good evening.

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Speaker 2: Good evening, Matthew, and good evening to your listeners.

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Speaker 1: That's just unreal, isn't it. So one bloke goes on

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Speaker 1: holidays and nobody's delegated the work.

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Speaker 2: Well, I must admit I was pretty gobsmacked when I

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Speaker 2: I heard that evidence. It sounds like what happened is

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Speaker 2: a member of the team was away and there wasn't

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Speaker 2: anybody within the EPA that had the expertise to be

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Speaker 2: able to step in and fill that gap, and so

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Speaker 2: consequently testing didn't happen for that year. Now that really

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Speaker 2: concerned me, and I put it directly to the chief

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Speaker 2: of the department and said, well, look, is this something

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Speaker 2: that you're worried about, is the boss of the department,

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Speaker 2: and will you be ensuring that this doesn't happen again?

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Speaker 2: And he said, well, look, we have you know, we

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Speaker 2: are reviewing our processes to make sure this doesn't occur.

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Speaker 2: But in my mind, that demonstrates there's obviously a lack

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Speaker 2: of resourcing for the EPA. If they're in a situation

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Speaker 2: that one person happens to be away, whether they're on

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Speaker 2: a holiday or you know, they might be sick or whatever,

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Speaker 2: the whole show shouldn't fall over. That is a real

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Speaker 2: worry and that's why we're calling today for the government

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Speaker 2: really to step up and make sure that they've got

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Speaker 2: appropriate resources for the EPA. I mean, might I say

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Speaker 2: it's Matthew, because not only does it seem like the

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Speaker 2: EPA is struggling, but I also had to look back

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Speaker 2: through the budget papers recently and I saw that Sarti

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Speaker 2: has actually had its funding reduced a lot as well

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Speaker 2: over the last fifteen years, and so you know, we're

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Speaker 2: seeing the support for these vital services being diminished at

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Speaker 2: a time when it's really critically important for us date

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Speaker 2: that we have this this testing happening.

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Speaker 1: SARDI was the organization that lost the phishlings, wasn't it?

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Speaker 1: Could Could the lack of funding be a reason?

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Speaker 2: Well, look, I don't know, but I suspect that it

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Speaker 2: might be a fact that it's contributing to some of

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Speaker 2: the problems that we've seen. I mean, it has seen

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Speaker 2: its funding diminish over a number of budgets now, and

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Speaker 2: you know, really that should be stepped up. I think

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Speaker 2: we need to see much more of an emphasis on

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Speaker 2: research and the Environmental Protection Authority really needs to be

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Speaker 2: I think doing more regular testing. The way that it

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Speaker 2: works at the moment is operates on a bit of

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Speaker 2: a cycle, and so there's testing that happens yearly, but

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Speaker 2: different areas get tested, different zones get tested every five years,

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Speaker 2: and maybe that cycle needs to be reviewed to ensure

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Speaker 2: that we're not missing anything as we're dealing with the

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Speaker 2: algal bloom.

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Speaker 1: You know, in the real world of businesses doing their

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Speaker 1: thing around the state. I've worked for organizations a number

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Speaker 1: of organizations, and it doesn't matter where you work. Here

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Speaker 1: and other places I've worked. If somebody goes on holidays,

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Speaker 1: the department, head, supervisor, whatever ensures somebody else knows that

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Speaker 1: person's job. And so if somebody's away, whether it was payroll,

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Speaker 1: whether it was I don't know, looking after stationary, somebody

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Speaker 1: else knows to do that job. It might not be

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Speaker 1: their job, but they're the person that comes in and

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Speaker 1: fills in. You know, they get taken out of that

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Speaker 1: and somebody else knows that person's job. So there's always

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Speaker 1: somebody there who can step in if somebody's away. Its

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Speaker 1: comprehensible the public service doesn't do this well.

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Speaker 2: Look, I mean, I think obviously highly specialized skills that

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Speaker 2: you know this person has, but there's a real gap

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Speaker 2: in the organization if someone isn't able to step in

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Speaker 2: and do that work. And certainly no criticism of the

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Speaker 2: scientist for being on leave. People go and leaves, that

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Speaker 2: life happens, that's totally totally signed, but the organization is

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Speaker 2: to have a plan in place to manage that. And

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Speaker 2: so it was quite quite baffling to hear that we

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Speaker 2: had a period where there wasn't testing and that that

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Speaker 2: that could you know, if that sort of happens long term,

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Speaker 2: that could demonstrate or produce real problems. I think we've

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Speaker 2: got to step it up in the future.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely. Are you concerned is the committee hearing about

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Speaker 1: the situation at Haslam where you had local fishes blockading

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Speaker 1: the boat ramp there as you'd be well aware. The

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Speaker 1: decision to move oysters from a part of the old

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Speaker 1: Franklin Harbor where the algal bloom was present, we understand

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Speaker 1: to the other side of the peninsula where it wasn't

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Speaker 1: that just seems a crazy brave decision. Yeah.

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Speaker 2: Look, I must admit, Matthew, we haven't heard any evidence

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Speaker 2: around that yet, but certainly, you know, monitor that situation closely.

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Speaker 2: But you know, I think in general, in terms of

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Speaker 2: some of the action that the government's taken around you know,

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Speaker 2: reducing fishing and the like, I do think a lot

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Speaker 2: of those things make sense in light of the challenging

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Speaker 2: circumstances that we face. But the question's got to be

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Speaker 2: why didn't they provide that certainty much earlier? And I

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Speaker 2: am concerned they're in a bit of drip feeding of

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Speaker 2: elements of the plan, which has probably created a lot

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Speaker 2: of confusion as well for people that industry.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, absolutely, the government's saying it's been monitoring and

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Speaker 1: it's on the ball with that. Does this indicate that

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Speaker 1: information is wrong?

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Speaker 2: Oh? Look, I think what it demonstrates, and I think

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Speaker 2: this is a clear theme that has come through this

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Speaker 2: committee is that we were dealing with this event is

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Speaker 2: an unprecedented event, and that we didn't really have a

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Speaker 2: clear plan in place to manage it, you know, And

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Speaker 2: that's been the key themes come through from the discussions

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Speaker 2: we've had Premiere and Cabinet of that committee, PERSA, the EPA.

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Speaker 2: Everybody seems to have been a bit wrong footed by

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Speaker 2: this and obviously something we haven't deal it with before.

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Speaker 2: But we've got to really, i think, review all of

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Speaker 2: our processes and procedures within state government to make sure

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Speaker 2: that if an event like this presents in the future,

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Speaker 2: and you know, with climate change, these sorts of events

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Speaker 2: are going to unfortunately potentially be more likely, and we've

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Speaker 2: got to see it being treated as an emergency and

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Speaker 2: there needs to be a quick coordination across all levels

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Speaker 2: of department, you know, rather than there being this kind

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Speaker 2: of whose job is it? And lots of paper shuffling

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Speaker 2: happening between different years of government would break down those stilos.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely, all right, So when when does your committee

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Speaker 1: wind up? When do you expect you'll have a report

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Speaker 1: out on this? Yeah?

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Speaker 2: So, look, we haven't set an end date for the

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Speaker 2: committee yet. Parliament is self will wrap up in a

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Speaker 2: few weeks. We've got only a few more weeks left

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Speaker 2: of sitting, but that doesn't mean the Committee has to

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Speaker 2: finish its work. And I'm very keen to continue during

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Speaker 2: the summer, particularly for us to look at how the

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Speaker 2: Summer Plan is working in practice and be able to

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Speaker 2: interrogate that in a bit more detail, and we'll have

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Speaker 2: the benefit then of obviously seeing what's happening during the

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Speaker 2: summer month. So I think the Committee will continue into

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Speaker 2: the summer period. I'd like this maybe to consider making

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Speaker 2: an interim report though, or give some sort of update

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Speaker 2: to Parliament, and that will probably happen in the next

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Speaker 2: few weeks in terms of where things are at. And

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Speaker 2: then of course we've got the Federal Inquiry there. Report's

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Speaker 2: coming out soon as well, so there'll be a few

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Speaker 2: things coming out of this space.

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Speaker 1: Do you need to have it wrapped up before the

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Speaker 1: state election.

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Speaker 2: No, we don't. We'd need to have the committee if

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Speaker 2: Parliament is peroged. You know, governments when they head into

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Speaker 2: an election period, they can basically clear all of the notes,

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Speaker 2: pay for all of the agenda items the Parliament's been

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Speaker 2: dealing with, and start afresh in the new parliament. But

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Speaker 2: that often happens around the February time, during the issuing

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Speaker 2: of the RITZ, so at that point the committee would

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Speaker 2: be dissolved. But there's no reason why we can't continue

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Speaker 2: our work during December and January, and certainly I'll be

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Speaker 2: keen to do that if I can get my colleagues

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Speaker 2: to be available as well.

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Speaker 1: All Right, we'll wait and see and thank you so

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Speaker 1: much for your.

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Speaker 2: Time, rob Thanks Matthew, good to talk to you.

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Speaker 1: Likewise, all right, Robert Simms, Green's Upper House MP sharing

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Speaker 1: a committee into the Algill Bloom