EPBC Biodiversity Threat Assessment: Wetlands and Inner Floodplains of the

The 2023 nomination and subsequent Biodiversity Threat Assessment of the Wetlands and Inner Floodplains of the Macquarie Marshes ecological community for inclusion to the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act 1999 list of threatened ecological communities is a complex process that requires careful time and consideration. [...] The river and its environs are highly developed landscapes that are tightly governed under state and federal law related to the Water Act 2007 and its subordinate Murray Darling Basin Plan, the implementation of which has seen significant and ongoing investment in the acquisition and utilisation of significant quantities of environmental water. [...] Eligibility and Proposed Conservation Status The Wetlands and Inner Floodplains of the Macquarie Marshes ecological community is described as the collection of plants and animals that occur on the wettest, most inundated parts of the Macquarie Marshes. [...] We question the rationale of the Department’s decision to undertake this assessment and entertain the idea of an EPBC listing as a consequence of activist views. [...] It is also noted that this process appears to lack the context of the existing water and environmental management regimes that underpin the Water Act 2007 and the accompanying Murray Darling Basin Plan.