The South Australian premier has said the state’s algal bloom catastrophe, which has caused mass deaths among hundreds of marine species, should be described as a natural disaster despite the Albanese government declining to do so a day earlier.

Speaking to the ABC’s News Breakfast program, Peter Malinauskas warned “politicians can do themselves a disservice when they get caught up in technicalities”.

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“From the South Australian government’s perspective, I want to be really clear about this. This is a natural disaster … I think politicians can do themselves a disservice when they get caught up in technicalities,” Malinauskas said.

“This is a natural disaster and should be acknowledged as such.

“There are over 400 different species of marine life that have been killed off or have had deaths as a result of this algal bloom.”

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Malinauskas said he used the words natural disaster “quite deliberately” but that the disaster differed from other emergencies, such as bushfires, that Australians were familiar with.

“This is so entirely unprecedented we don’t really know how it’s going to play out over coming weeks and months ahead,” he said.