A politician is under fire after admitting to using artificial intelligence to generate academic sources he then submitted to a parliamentary inquiry.
However, some of the sources did not exist.
South Australian Liberal upper house member Frank Pangallo has admitted he relied on AI-generated research to support his personal theory linking desalination plants to harmful algae blooms during a parliamentary inquiry into the state’s recent algae bloom crisis.
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The self-named ‘Watchdog’ submitted incorrect information to members of the Budget and Finance Committee.
When approached by 7NEWS at Parliament House, Pangallo shifted the blame — claiming the error was accidental.
“It was a minor mistake,” Pangallo told 7NEWS. “Everyone makes mistakes.”
“Peter Malinauskas and Tom Koutsantonis are just ramping up to try to embarrass us — well I’m not embarrassed by it.”
But a day earlier during question time, Pangallo pointed to an “administration error” as the cause of the mix-up.
“My mistake didn’t cost taxpayers a cent,” he told parliament.
“I didn’t mislead parliament… There are other studies between HABs (harmful algae blooms) and desal plants I didn’t refer to, and which I didn’t provide.”
Pangallo also apologised for misattributing details about a real paper by marine biologist Mindy Richlen, clarifying that the author’s information had been wrongly described.
Now, calls are growing for Pangallo to step down from his parliamentary committee role.
Labor Minister Tom Koutsantonis didn’t mince words.
“He misled parliament — and that is unforgivable,” he said on Tuesday.
Pangello told 7NEWS the correct papers have been given to the members of the Budget and Finance Committee.
One study Pangallo referenced by Mindy Richlen does exist — but it looked at a 2008–2009 red tide in the Arabian Gulf, warning of the algae’s environmental impact on desalination infrastructure. It did not blame desal plants for causing blooms. In fact, the paper points to cargo ships as a possible source of the algae.
Another study Pangallo cited — supposedly about desalination’s impact on plankton in the Red Sea — turned out to link to a completely unrelated paper about plastic pollution in Canadian fish. That study named could not be found.
A third paper, allegedly by researcher Al-Sofyani, also led to a different topic — detailing nanofiltration in desal plants and how newer methods couldn’t benefit drinking water supply, by a completely different team of researchers.
The only semi-correctly cited report was by Paul van Ruth from SARDI in 2010. But even that study didn’t draw a direct link between the Port Stanvac desal plant and algae blooms — instead, it noted more research was needed. It did confirm that brine discharge could make seawater saltier in the area.
South Australian Liberal leader Vincent Tarzia has told Pangallo to do his homework.
“I’ve spoken to Frank about it, and explained that we expect better of him, but it was a mistake,” he said.
Scientists have since debunked the desalination theory behind the algae bloom of karenia mikimotoi, saying a three major weather events, including a marine heatwave, is to blame for the nutrient surge fuelling the blooms.
The combined effects of river floods, a cold water upswell and now warmer than average water temperatures — which have created the conditions in which the algae thrives — are not easily combated, the South Australian government’s Department for Environment and Water (DEW) has said.
Since March when surfers first began falling sick after riding the waves at Goolwa on the Fleurieu Peninsula, the toxic karenia mikimotoi algae has spread along the coastline to Adelaide and around the other side of the Yorke Peninsula, like Port Broughton — about 250km north of where it was first detected.
The algae bloom — now estimated to be about 4,500sqkm in size — has killed thousands of fish and other marine life, with regular reports of rotten carcasses washing up on beaches.
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