Transcript – ABC Radio National Breakfast with Sally Sara

Angie Bell MP

Shadow Minister for the Environment

Shadow Minister for Youth

Federal Member for Moncrieff

TRANSCRIPT

ABC Radio National Breakfast with Sally Sara

14 August 2025

Subjects: South Australia visit, Algal bloom, Environmental reform.

E&OE…………………………………………………………………………………………………

SALLY SARA:

Well, senior members of the federal government and opposition have been visiting South Australia in the past week to observe the ongoing impact of the state’s algal bloom. The Federal Opposition Leader Sussan Ley says the toxic bloom is causing, quote, “a collapse of the ecosystem”. Angie Bell is the Federal Shadow Minister for the Environment and was among those touring the state’s coastline. Angie Bell joins me now. Welcome back to Radio National Breakfast.

ANGIE BELL:

Thank you, Sally, so wonderful to be with you this morning.

SALLY SARA:

Talking with locals in South Australia in these coastal areas, what are the main concerns that have been raised with you?

ANGIE BELL:

Well, it was good to be able to take Sussan Ley and also Tom Venning, the local member down there, back to Ardrossan yesterday. I was there last week and we sat and spoke with fishers again about their terrible plight and the fact that they’ve been badly let down by the Labor government and the Environment Minister in South Australia. They are facing absolute ruin and Sussan is right when she outlines the devastation that we saw on the beach down there on the Yorke Peninsula’s coastline. Now what we’ve seen, Sally, is Mark Butler who, is well, Adelaide’s Minister for beaches admit that the government was too late to act on this.

We’ve seen Murray Watt, the Environment Minister, apologise on Monday and the Prime Minister slated to visit the state next week and I think he should do the same and apologise for his government’s inaction and delay. These fishers have said to us yesterday when we were sitting in a hotel there in Ardrossan talking to them that applying for the small amount of funding that is available is too hard, it’s too slow and it’s too late and they were their words.

SALLY SARA:

Is Sussan Ley, is that the first visit by the Federal Opposition Leader, both current or previous to this algal bloom?

ANGIE BELL:

This is the, I would say, the third time that I have been involved in organising a visit down to the algal bloom. Certainly, it’s the first time Sussan Ley has been to see it herself, but Tom Venning, obviously, the local member down there, has been advocating for his community, for us to visit the region and sit and speak with the fishers. Last week, when I was down there, I also met with the heads of industry for the Spencer Gulf over at Port Lincoln as well. We weren’t able to make it over there due to the weather, but we certainly had a teams meeting with those industry heads and they are very, very concerned about the entire South Australian fishing industry.

SALLY SARA:

Just to be clear, because this was also happening before the election, this is the first time that the opposition and Opposition Leader at the federal level has visited. If you’re saying the federal government was too late, is that valid criticism when this is the first time for your leader as well?

ANGIE BELL:

I’m saying that the federal government has admitted itself that it has been too late to act on this. And Murray Watt was pressured into going down to South Australia immediately before the first sitting of Parliament by his colleagues, by the Coalition as well, for highlighting this algal bloom and the fact that the government simply hasn’t acted quick enough.

SALLY SARA:

What would the opposition do differently?

ANGIE BELL:

Well, the opposition wouldn’t have waited so long and ignored the scientists down in South Australia who’ve been asking for 18 months for the funding to monitor this bloom, to understand exactly what its impacts would be and where it is. Currently, it’s twice the size of the ACT. It is a huge impact on the local ecosystem down in South Australia and the Gulf of St Vincent is in deep trouble.

SALLY SARA:

Do you accept that climate change is linked to this disaster?

ANGIE BELL:

Well, certainly there are a number of factors that have impacted and created this algal bloom. Firstly, there is a runoff, nutrients in the water that have mixed with an increase in water temperature, of course, which is attributable to the changing climate and climate change.

SALLY SARA:

What needs to happen now?

ANGIE BELL:

Well, the government needs to help those fishers and those local communities that have been impacted, and it needs to have a tailored response for those communities, which, of course, it can do right now. The federal government announced $14 million in support and that has been matched by the state government. But those organisations that we met with yesterday, those grown men who are so very upset about their livelihoods, they have told us it is too difficult to apply for that funding.

SALLY SARA:

Just briefly, the Federal Environment Minister, Murray Watt, has been consulting stakeholders about overhauling the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act. Would the Coalition support legislating broad reforms in one go, or would you prefer the reform to come in stages?

ANGIE BELL:

Well, certainly my door is open when it comes to speaking with the Minister around EPBC reform. It’s too important to get wrong, I have to say, Sally, in terms of protecting our environment, but also making sure that investment continues in industry and in our country for jobs across the nation. In the last term of government, we felt that the government did not get the balance right when it came to EPBC reform, and obviously that legislation failed. And so, we will come to the table with the government where we can, and of course, we’ll disagree where we must.

SALLY SARA:

Angie Bell, thank you for your time.

ANGIE BELL:

My pleasure. Thank you.

ENDS.