The Liberal National Government are hiding critical information about draining the Menindee Lakes twice in three years, the Greens say.

Seismic testing is the first step to drilling in the Great Australian Bight and will have devastating outcomes for SA, the Greens say.

The Greens are urging the Liberal National Government to lift the freeze on water buy backs to restore much-needed flows to the Murray Darling Basin. 

The Federal Water Minister must force the NSW and QLD Governments to urgently invoke their powers and embargo the cotton industry’s water extraction from the Murray Darling Basin after widespread fish deaths, the Greens say.

More reports of dead native fish floating in their thousands in the Lower Darling sends a dreadful signal on the health of the River.

Australian Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young has called on the Liberal Government to issue emergency travel documents to a young Saudi woman trapped in Bangkok, so she can travel safely and urgently to Australia where she has a visa.

The Greens have responded to the release of a secret Ernst & Young Audit report that has shown state governments, including South Australia have been mismanaging taxpayer funded environmental water throughout the Murray-Darling Basin, creating “unique fraud risks”.

“This audit shows the environment and taxpayers continue to be ripped off by both State and Federal Governments, including here in South Australia,” Greens spokesperson for Environment & Water Senator Sarah Hanson-Young said.

10,000 native fish found dead this week from a blue-green algae bloom in the Darling River is a dire warning of what’s to come after the Federal and State Governments refused last week to guarantee 450GL of water for environment flows.

“Our River system is dying and our environment is in collapse,” Greens Environment and Water spokesperson Senator Hanson-Young said today.

“Both the Coalition and Labor parties have failed to stand up to the corporate irrigators and are letting the River die.

Labor must decide whether it will stand by environmental protections or roll over to Adani and big oil wanting to drill in the Bight, the Greens say.

The strong environmental protections announced by Labor today will fail without proper investment, and a commitment to no new coal, oil and gas.

“We welcome Labor adopting Greens’ policy on stronger protections for the environment, but without proper investment and committing to no new coal, oil and gas they will fail,” Greens environment spokesperson Senator Sarah Hanson-Young said.