Danger of phones out as well as power

I again spoke in Parliament last Wednesday about the unacceptable impacts of power outages such as the electorate-wide one that occurred on 14 March which lasted for up to 20 hours and came at considerable cost to households and businesses.

Whilst during every Sitting Week since I have been raising the topics of compensation and accountability for significant losses incurred, I this week spoke about another critical impact of the power outages that threatens the very safety of communities which must be addressed: -- the fact that within a few hours of any blackout occurring phone reception is lost too, with phone towers losing battery back-up.

During the black out of 14 March, all phone reception was lost across the entire Yorke Peninsula – a truly dangerous situation to put all residents in and a situation that can have literally, life or death consequences.

As we all know, phone service is essential to fight fires, call ambulances or police, for the ill and infirm to be checked upon, for call alert systems to work, to enable schools to contact parents.

It was a warm and windy day so what if a bushfire had started?

This is a situation that must be addressed, and to that end I have been liaising with Ministers, SA Power Networks, Electranet and Telco providers, and believe community batteries and or generators need to be planned for and allocated across the State during such emergencies.

I was at least pleased to inform the Parliament that we have a new tower incoming at Port Rickaby that will be equipped with 12 hours battery back-up (as will have the new Wool Bay one).

I’m advised other existing towers have a varied battery charge range, from between four and 20 hours; suffice to say we need more of the latter.  

Algae update

Yesterday in Parliament I was also briefed by PIRSA, the Environment Protection Authority, the Bureau of Meteorology, SA Health and the Department for Environment and Water on the concerning algal bloom event which, at time of writing, had closed oyster farms at Stansbury as a precaution.

Warmer ocean temperatures, and lack of wind and water flow is reportedly the causes and only good winter winds and rain will help disperse the bloom.

It was also stressed that the toxin levels recorded are below food regulation standards meaning no harm for people, and that local seafood remains safe to eat. Unfortunately, there is nothing that can be done to help ailing marine wildlife being impacted.  

Risk remains as fire danger season ends

While the Fire Danger Season officially ended in all South Australian districts at midnight on 14 May, authorities are warning against complacency due to the very dry conditions.

The Bureau of Meteorology has recorded the period from October 2024 to April 2025 as one of the hottest and driest on record with maximum temperatures the highest seen for much of the state, and rainfall in the bottom 10 per cent for most districts, including Yorke Peninsula and the Mid North listed with historic rainfall lows.