Member for Murray Helen Dalton led community outcry against the NSW Government’s decision to reclassify six regional basins as wetlands. Photo: Supplied.
Member for Murray Helen Dalton believes regional NSW has secured an environmental win, following the NSW Government’s announcement it will be rolling back its decision to declare sections of the Murray-Darling Basin as wetlands.
Wetlands are areas of land that are wet by surface water or groundwater, or both, and targeted by government for conservation purposes. Ms Dalton said she was concerned that “locking up” parts of the basin as wetlands would disadvantage farming communities.
“The people of rural NSW have spoken out, and the government has listened,” Ms Dalton said.
“Thank heavens we realised what was going on and could alert people.
“Otherwise bureaucrats sitting at desks and looking at maps in the Sydney CBD would have declared huge amounts of property to be wetlands, and that land would have been lost to rural NSW communities forever.”
The Department of Climate Change, Energy, The Environment and Water (DCCEEW) announced the decision to roll back the reclassification of the six sites affected (Gwydir, Namoi-Peel, Macquarie/Wambuul-Bogan, Lachlan, Murrumbidgee and Barwon-Darling) came following heavy community opposition.
“We thank residents, landholders and stakeholder groups who shared their local knowledge and expertise over the past three months during community consultation,” a DCCEEW statement read.
“It gave us an opportunity to hear directly from people on the ground, many of whom have lived in the regions their entire lives, which has been invaluable in helping us make changes.”
NSW DCCEEW Executive Director of Water Planning Giselle Howard said the result of the consultation perfectly demonstrated why it was important to reach out to the community.
“This is a great example of how much we value community feedback and how crucial it is in helping us get our water sharing plans right,” she said.
“While we recognise that some of the data that we used for the original wetlands’ maps had not been subjected to rigorous ground truthing, the feedback we received over the extended consultation period was invaluable in highlighting the nature and scale of potential impacts that this may cause to landholders.
“As a result, we were able to fast-track changes to wetland maps and are now going back out to the community four weeks after the initial consultation closed to give everyone another chance to have their say.”
Ms Dalton notified residents about the government’s plans and then created a social media campaign to stop the declarations.
“This is a victory for the people of rural NSW. It just goes to show that when we speak up about matters that are important to us, the government knows it must take rural NSW seriously,” Ms Dalton said.
“I honestly believe we weren’t meant to know about these declarations until they happened.
“But because people spoke up quickly and loudly, the government has had to back down. Amongst the areas which have avoided being arbitrarily declared as wetlands is Lake Coolah.
“Lake Coolah must play an important role in the rescuing of the Murray-Darling Basin.
“Wrongly locking up Lake Coolah as a wetland would be a disaster for the basin and for Australia.”
Original Article published by Jarryd Rowley on Region Riverina.
