Something extraordinary has just happened, and we need to act quickly.
Water experts from around the country – including Professor Barry Hart, who sat on the Scientific Inquiry into Hydraulic Fracturing - have just written to the Chief Minister to condemn the draft water allocation plan for the Beetaloo Basin, and to raise the alarm on the woeful state of the Northern Territory’s water management.
Territorians like you have been telling the Northern Territory Government for years that our water laws are fundamentally broken. From a huge water licence being overturned at Larrimah, to a secret government memo revealing the Roper River could run dry, to bending the rules to allow a massive water licence at Singleton Station to go ahead, water management in the Territory is nothing short of a national shame. But the concerns of everyday Territorians like you have been ignored.
But last week, the Northern Territory Government went too far. They released the long-awaited draft water allocation plan for the Beetaloo Basin, which will hand out more water to Big Business than ever before in the Territory’s history – equivalent to half of Sydney Harbour per year. This could put at risk our aquifers and iconic rivers such as the Roper and Daly systems.
Now, some of the most eminent water experts from across the country have intervened to call on the Chief Minister to stop the destruction of our waterways in favour of Big Business. They single out the draft water allocation plan for the Beetaloo Basin as “particularly poor and regressive”, but also raise a raft of issues with where our water management is heading in the Northern Territory. They say what you already know – it’s a broken system.
Professor Sue Jackson, Professor Barry Hart, Professor Quentin Grafton, Professor Marcia Langton, Professor Richard Kingsford, Professor Anne Poelina – these are the some of the biggest names in water in Australia. It’s a watershed moment.
Now, I need you to back them up. Please write a submission to the Chief Minister and Minister Lauren Moss today, asking them to push back the declaration of the Beetaloo water allocation plan, and put a moratorium on water licences until proper planning processes are implemented, and scientific studies completed.
You can use sign the submission online, or our use our handy submission writing guide to draft your own.
Write a submission today, for the sake of our rivers, aquifers and floodplains.