Right now, the future of the Macquarie River, Marshes and the Lower Darling are being threatened by an industry willing to manipulate the truth for the sake of a very privileged few.

If you’ve lived in different regional areas of Australia, you know we all have something in common – we all focus and rely on the local river. My name is Melissa Gray, and I grew up on an irrigated farm in the Clarence Valley. While I think there is a place in our world for sensible irrigation and mining, right now greed and corruption are destroying our rivers and our communities.

The Macquarie River and Marshes are under threat by powerful lobbyists, who are trying to erode the Basin Plan and rig the rules so they can take more than their fair share of water.

Some rogue irrigators have cherry picked figures based on false information, and cashed up lobbyists are manipulating the truth to take water from the river for the benefit of the big end of town. They are pushing for the Murray-Darling Northern Basin Amendment to reduce the amount of river water protected for our environment and our communities by 28 billion litres.

We all suffer when our rivers don’t have enough water.

Less water for the Marshes will threaten the resilience of the entire ecosystem, already considered under threat. The Macquarie Marshes are protected under environmental treaties including the Ramsar Convention and other international migratory bird agreements to which Australia is a signatory. Failure to meet the core requirements of these international agreements would constitute a breach of the Water Act.

Less water will mean fewer native fish. The amount of water currently available to manage the health of the river and its wildlife is not enough to maintain the number of native fish species we once had in the Macquarie. The Macquarie Perch for example, is extinct in the Macquarie River. If we lose 28 billion litres from the water we have, we will lose even more species of native fish.  

No new scientific study has been conducted in the Valley to justify this decision, instead some rogue irrigators and the MDBA have used figures called ‘factors’ to justify removing 28 billion litres of river water from the Macquarie River. There is no consensus of what the value of the ‘factors’ are, with some irrigators using figures that deliberately ignore the millennial drought.

We the undersigned will not tolerate the future of the Macquarie River, Marshes and the Lower Darling being threatened by an industry willing to manipulate the truth for the sake of a very privileged few. Malcom Turnbull, reject the Northern Basin Amendment.

Ask

Now, we call on Malcom Turnbull to make sure the Basin Plan:

• Legally dedicates 3,200 GL of river water to our rivers so they can flow with more natural cycles of flooding and drying
• Removes barriers and outdated rules so our rivers can replenish natural floodplains
• Uses the best available science to manage the current and future impact of global warming
• Is overseen by transparent institutions we can trust to look after our rivers and ensure everyone plays by the rules.