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Make your voice heard

Write your letter

We all feel pretty strongly about protecting our Top End way of life. We share a love for the great outdoors and a strong connection to the amazing natural landscape we’re lucky enough to call home.

Healthy rivers are central to the Territory way of life. They’re where we fish, we boat, we relax and we enjoy the unique Top End lifestyle. But they’re under threat from big business who want to take huge amounts of water from our rivers. We don’t want to see what happened down south on the Murray Darling happen to our Top End rivers.

You can help by writing a letter to the NT News.

Use our handy form below to submit a letter to the NT News, and help us to highlight the ongoing fight to protect our rivers.

Some tips on writing your letter:

  • Why are you writing a letter about Territory rivers? How do the rivers it affect you personally?
    “I’m concerned about the threats from big cotton to how we all get to enjoy our rivers.”
  • What is it about our rivers that you enjoy?
    “Our rivers provide an important part of the Top End experience and lifestyle – fishing for a huge Barra, getting out into nature and being connected to the land and water.”
  • What do you want to see happen?
    “It’s time that the NT Government took serious the responsibility of protecting our rivers, and make sure they survive for future generations to enjoy.”
  • Short and sweet is best. No more than 300 words in total.

Some facts and figures you might like to include

  • The Australian and Northern Territory governments are subsidising the industry by $42 million per year, as it is not financially viable with private investment alone. Industry dryland cotton in Northern Australia makes an estimated loss of $812 per hectare.
  • Land clearing have rapidly accelerated in the NT – averaging 20,000 hectares of land a year – with proposals for cotton cropping expected to require much more.
  • The Environmental Defenders Office has described the NT’s laws as among the worst in the country. The Northern Territory is largely non-compliant with federal water policy, with the Productivity Commission recently described the NT’s water planning as “backsliding” compared with other jurisdictions.
  • In 2022, 18 water experts from universities across the country wrote to the Chief Minister to express concern about the region’s poor water regulations and to urge a halt in new extraction licences.
  • In 2024, all three major political parties (CLP, Labor & Greens) all publicly pledged to ensure that no new dams would be built on free-flowing rivers in the Northern Territory.
  • 72.5% of Territorians say that the cotton industry shouldn’t be allowed to expand operations the Territory until they fix up their mess in the Murray-Darling basin.

Stuck for ideas on what to write? Read what others have already had published:

Write your letter

Remember, your letter is more likely to be published if it is short, sharp and to the point.
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