00:00I accept that South Australians think that governments were too slow to respond to this
00:06event and for that I apologise.
00:09What we were doing though in the run up to that was working very closely with the South
00:13Australian Government for weeks.
00:15First of all to try to understand this event because it is unprecedented.
00:19We are in uncharted waters as to how to deal with it and what support is needed.
00:24But when the South Australian Government made its request of us we turned that around within
00:2824 hours and that's why we've provided half of a $28 million funding package to support
00:35the businesses who are being affected, to undertake more science and research, to make the community
00:40aware of the event and what its consequences are and also to clean up the beaches.
00:45So it's good that that money is starting to flow but I accept that people felt that we
00:49were too slow.
00:50I've been down there myself to inspect the beaches and I'll actually be coming down to
00:54Adelaide again this week to see it again and to meet with some of the businesses who
00:59are affected.
01:00So I can assure South Australians that the Federal Government is very much engaged and actually
01:04was for quite a period of time.
01:07Certainly from the Government's point of view we have been taking this matter seriously.
01:11I think there was an expectation that whether conditions would intervene to disperse this
01:16algal bloom at a much earlier stage and that hasn't happened and it is absolutely devastating
01:21for South Australians and I think all Australians to see the kind of damage that we're seeing.
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