Protecting our rivers and landscapes 

Take action

The NT Government’s new Agribusiness Strategy raises the stakes on the threat to our rivers from big business, like cotton. Now, more than ever, we need to fight for our rivers. 

The NT Government are bowing to the demands of big business – against the wishes of the local community, the best advice of environmental scientists and aboriginal communities. 

The strategy reveals more than 56,000 football-sized fields of native savanna are at risk of being bulldozed for cotton crops and industrial gins in the NT over the next decade. 

This is a massive escalation in the threat to the health of our rivers and floodplains like the Daly, Roper, Victoria and Adelaide. 

In the NT Government’s newly released ‘Agribusiness Strategy’, there is alarming detail: 

• A target of 100,000 hectares of the Northern Territory to be cleared for crops like cotton within the next decade.  
• Changing land use laws to make growing cotton easier including undermining legal rights of Native Title holders 
• These changes mean it will be quicker and easier for big business, like cotton, to get land and take more water 

Now is the time to let the Government know that the community does not support this future for our rivers and environment. 

If we see more clearing of iconic native savanna and more water being taken from our rivers, it will put the health of our iconic river systems at risk. 

Join the call for a better way to protect our rivers and landscapes – write to Chief Minister Fyles today.