Rural NSW Communities are Endangered Species
The Federal Government has declared the lower Murray River “critically endangered,” claiming the solution lies in pushing ever more water down the system and tightening controls on agriculture. This decision ignores both science and history. The Murray did not always naturally run full, all year-round. Before man-made dams existed, records show the river stopped flowing over 5 times across the past 150 years. Yet today, productive irrigation water is being forcibly bought back using taxpayer funds and flushed out to sea to sustain artificial outcomes like the fake lower lakes and the diminishing aquifer from the South East Drains. The National Farmers’ Federation has warned this new EPBC listing adds more red tape to an already over-regulated system, with no clear environmental gain.
What we are witnessing is political blame-shifting disguised as environmental protection. Canberra’s answer to every problem remains the same: take more water from regional communities and call it progress. Meanwhile, genuine threats such as carp infestations, catchment degradation, and poor management upstream receive far less serious attention or funding. The consequence is predictable — irrigators become the villains, towns weaken, and trust collapses. If leaders are serious about protecting the river and the communities that depend on it, the path forward is transparency and accountability. That means a Federal Royal commission into water management and The Murray Darling Basin Plan with an immediate action to stop further harm being done under the current Basin Plan settings before irreversible damage is locked in. NSW Premier Chris Minns must now completely withdraw NSW from the disastrous Murray Darling Basin plan until this Royal Commission presents its outcomes.
