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National Farmers' Federation

Farmers praise Parliament’s decision to disallow listings

The National Farmers’ Federation (NFF) has welcomed today’s decision by the House of Representatives to disallow the listing of the Murray River and Macquarie Marshes communities under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conversation (EPBC) Act.
NFF CEO Matt Linnegar said today’s outcome is a common sense decision that will reduce the amount of unnecessary green tape facing farmers in these communities.
“Today’s decision to disallow the listing of the Murray River and Macquarie Marshes as critically endangered threatened ecological communities is the right decision, given there are already a range of other safeguards in place for these water sources, including the Murray Darling Basin Plan and Water Resource Plans at state levels,” Mr Linnegar said.
“While we are pleased that Parliament today made the right decision regarding these communities, it does raise some serious questions as to the processes underpinning listings of matters of national environmental significance.
“Affected communities must be consulted in a real and meaningful way by the Threatened Species Scientific Committee and when the Minister makes his decision. This would avoid significant frustrations by affected communities, and ensure that substantial local knowledge and expertise is considered when making recommendations and decisions,” Mr Linnegar said.
Mr Linnegar thanked the Government for moving the motions to disallow the listings.

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