STATEMENT River Murray: Darling to Sea nominated for listing as a threatened ecological community under the EPBC Act

I moved a disallowance motion in the Federal Parliament in 2013 following the last attempt by a Labor Government to list the River Murray below the Darling as critically endangered under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act.

Listing this section of the River and its floodplains is as unnecessary now as it was then.

In the dying days of the Rudd Labor Government, the then Labor Minister for Environment and Water signed off on two EPBC Act listings including the Murray-Darling river system and associated wetlands with little to no consultation with community.

With a Federal election looming, it appears the Albanese Labor Government are yet again attempting to quietly make this listing while they can without so much as a press release about it. 

In 2013 the South Australian State Labor Government agreed that the proposal was overzealous.

The current South Australian Minister for Water and Environment Susan Close is boasting about how much water is being delivered across the SA border and the positive environmental effects being seen. One can only assume Minister Close also sees no need for the EPBCA listing and will arguing this point to her Labor mates in Canberra, particularly given the additional layers of green tape would be counterintuitive to delivering the Basin Plan as agreed to by all States in 2012.

A critically endangered listing would mean any project that may impact water quality or flow rates such as projects proposed through the Sustainable Diversion Limit Adjustment Mechanism, intended to improve access to environment water flows, would be held up in additional regulatory processes.

If this listing is recommended and approved by the Federal Minister, it will have been achieved without proper consultation and contrary to common sense.