Environment Minister Murray Watt has not confirmed whether Anthony Albanese would announce further funding when he visits the toxic algal bloom that has caused mass marine life deaths and rocked the tourism industry in South Australia.
The federal government has so far provided $14 million in funding, matched by the state government.
Environment Minister Murray Watt with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
“I’ll leave it for the Prime Minister to make those sorts of decisions about what we do, but I don’t think we should lose sight of the fact that this has been a very substantial investment by both the federal and South Australian governments,” Watt told ABC News Breakfast.
Crossbench MP for the coastal electorate of Mayo, Rebekha Sharkie, criticised the government’s rollout of support, saying that the current package constituted less than half the funding provided to her electorate for the construction of a roundabout.
Watt said that the government was observing the crisis in the same way it would a drought, as a slow and steady crisis, rather than a disaster like a bushfire, as the government faces growing pressure to define the algal bloom as a natural disaster.
“To be honest, I haven’t spent too much time focusing on how I can jam this event into particular definitions,” Watt said. “What I’ve been trying to do is come up with the money to support South Australians and now get expert advice on what the impact is going to be.”
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