Environments across the entire Murray-Darling Basin area depend on environmental water flows to survive. (Supplied: Leanne Hall)<\/p>\n
Mr Johnson said an upcoming environmental water release on September 1 was part of a long-term plan.<\/p>\n
“If this water doesn’t go ahead, there will be observable, obvious damage in real time to the Macquarie Marshes and any other wetlands, wildlife and vegetation that don’t get water,”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
he said.<\/p>\n
Cattle grazier and irrigator Garry Hall echoed Mr Johnson’s concerns, saying the situation for the Macquarie Marshes was “dire”.<\/p>\n
“The Macquarie Marsh is in absolute free fall trying to recover from years and years of relocation in the Macquarie,” he said.<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/1134de5b86374d0adaec158bab88719a\")
<\/p>\n
As private Ramsar wetland managers, Garry and Leanne Hall must report any changes to the wetland’s ecosystem. (Supplied: Leanne Hall)<\/p>\n
Mr Hall and his wife Leanne are also private Ramsar wetland managers, and are obliged to report any changes to the wetland’s natural environment.<\/p>\n
“We take that responsibility very seriously. We graze on the site under the wise use principle,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“I’ve written to Simon Banks \u2026 expressing my concerns about the position we\u2019ll be put in as private Ramsar managers if this release doesn’t go ahead.”<\/p>\n
![\"Three](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/565c5020fa1592ed51d75f7409c7fc4c\")
<\/p>\n
The Brolga is one of 18 endangered bird species that inhabit the Macquarie Marshes. (Supplied: Leanne Hall)<\/p>\n
Laws ‘weaponised against the environment’<\/p>\n
Mr Johnson alleges a long-running campaign by the irrigation industry to limit environmental water use\u00a0may have contributed to Dr Banks’s\u00a0decision to stop environmental\u00a0watering.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Dr Banks previously made a submission to a 2023 review of the NSW non-urban metering framework issues and options papers, highlighting the emphasis on irrigation water delivery over environmental outcomes.<\/p>\n
“It is critical that these issues are carefully considered and resolved,” he wrote at the time.<\/p>\n
Dr Banks pointed out that existing environmental metering practices were unclear under a new metering framework.<\/p>\n
Mr Johnson says Dr Banks’s comments were never addressed, and then the framework was given effect with the passing of the Water Management (General) Amendment (Metering) Regulation 2018 bill, which came into effect on March 7 this year.<\/p>\n
![\"An](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/da36ea065397706f8cf9370d8ed9275c\")
<\/p>\n
Bill Johnson now specialises in water policy and management. (ABC Landline: Lani Oataway)<\/p>\n
He believes Dr Banks has ordered environmental flows to stop because it cannot use those methods.<\/p>\n
“The laws that were initially designed to protect the environment have been weaponised against the environment,” he said.<\/p>\n
A spokesperson for the NSW Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water said it had discovered a technical issue in the way the NSW Water Management Act was drafted, which it is working to resolve. \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A former director at the Murray-Darling Basin Authority says Australia is failing its international obligations after the federal…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":164504,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4740,94853,94849,72535,94850,50,94852,94854,94851],"class_list":{"0":"post-164503","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-australia","9":"tag-australia-ramsars-wetlands","10":"tag-environmental-water-flow","11":"tag-macquarie-marshes","12":"tag-murray-darling-basin-plan","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-nsw-water-stopped","15":"tag-ramsar-australia","16":"tag-ramsar-wetland"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115068294502491009","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164503","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=164503"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164503\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/164504"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=164503"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=164503"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=164503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}