Today’s announcement that the Lower Murray, including the Coorong and Lower Lakes, will finally be listed as ‘critically endangered’ under Australia’s environment laws is welcome, but long overdue. This critically endangered listing must now drive urgent, practical action to restore the Coorong and Lower Lakes, prioritise the delivery of the promised environmental water, and uphold First Nations cultural and spiritual connections.
Senator for SA and Greens spokesperson for the environment and water, Sarah Hanson-Young:
“Decades of over extraction and corporate greed have left South Australia’s River Murray in peril. This listing must be a turning point.
“The listing is long overdue and enormously significant, but with the Murray-Darling Basin Plan due to expire, the new plan must urgently address the critically endangered Lower Murray and Coorong.
“For years, South Australians, First Nations communities, scientists and river communities have been warning that the Murray and the Coorong are being bled dry by upstream over-extraction, corporate greed, and the growing impacts of climate change.
“This listing should mean tougher scrutiny on new irrigation and industrial developments, stronger protections for our waterways and threatened species, and an end to upstream decisions that starve the Coorong and Lower Lakes of the fresh water they need to survive.
“To ensure the health of the river, the full 450 gigalitres that has been promised to South Australia in environmental water must be delivered.