South Australian public servants were repeatedly told to strip the words 'harmful', 'outbreak' and 'disaster' from communications about the state's marine algal bloom, even as dead fish washed up on Adelaide-area beaches and recreational fishing closures were rolling out across the gulfs.
The instructions are contained in internal emails released under Freedom of Information laws to the Liberal Party opposition, and they paint an awkward picture for a government that has just imposed a total closure on calamari fishing in Gulf St Vincent and Spencer Gulf.
Among the documents were suggested edits to government-paid advertorials. The edits requested that the words 'outbreak' and 'harmful' be removed and that 'disaster' be replaced with the more neutral 'event'.
One email from the Department for Premier and Cabinet, sent in August 2025, asked for the word 'harmful' to be dropped from the official 'Harmful Algal Bloom (HAB) situation update page' on the basis that it could be misread by the public.
"We were wondering if the name of the page could be updated as the campaign's objective is to reassure the community and the use of the word 'harmful' is a bit alarming. People could interpret this as being harmful to their own health," the email said. "If we could update to Algal bloom update, it would align with the campaign messaging and have a more neutral tone."
"Some suggested minor tweeks [sic] and also incorporating the bizarre advice from coms to drop 'harmful'," the email read.
Another email referenced the new house style explicitly. "I'd just remove 'harmful' in the version for service providers to match how proactive comms appears to be referring to algal bloom," it said.
Liberal environment spokesperson Nicola Centofanti, who received the documents under FOI, said the records confirmed long-running suspicions about the government's handling of the saga.
"Time and time again, we have seen this government more focused on PR than people and more focused on spin over substance and I think the people of South Australia are getting pretty sick of it," Centofanti said. "Ultimately, South Australians have so many questions about the algal bloom that need answering."
She renewed calls for a royal commission into the response.
Premier Peter Malinauskas, asked about the FOI documents at a press conference, said he was bemused by the suggestion.
"I don't know why anyone would contemplate doing that," Malinauskas said, before defending his own messaging. "Particularly given that I and other senior members of the government have been very clear about the fact that the algal bloom is the harmful algal bloom. We've been consistent about that."
The FOI release lands while the recreational fishing community is still absorbing the May 1 calamari closure and the tightening of garfish and King George whiting rules. For commercial operators in the Gulf of St Vincent who have warned the fishery 'would be horrendous to reopen' before stocks rebuild, the documents read as confirmation of what they have long suspected: that the public messaging consistently lagged the reality on the water.
The Premier has insisted the bloom itself is now 'effectively clear' from almost all testing sites, but with the FOI release, the political narrative around how SA talked about the disaster looks far from over.