NSW Primary Industries and Regional Water Minister Niall Blair has received death threats after up to a million fish were killed in a devastating algal bloom this week.
The mass fish death is the second to hit the Darling River at Menindee near Broken Hill in as many months.
While the State and Federal governments have blamed the increase in algal bloom events on the drought, furious locals say it’s the mismanagement and draining of the lakes by the Murray Darling Basin Authority that is to blame.
Mr Blair was forced to change to location of his meeting with angry Menindee locals this morning in response to the threats, a spokesperson for the minister told nine.com.au.
It is understood dozens of threats against the minister were made on Facebook last night after an emotional video by local farmers went viral with millions of views.
In the video, clearly distraught farmers Rob McBride and Dick Arnold hold up two dead 100-year-old Murray cods.
"This is bloody disgraceful, this is the most disgusting thing I've seen in my life," Mr McBride said.
"This has nothing to do with drought, this is a man-made disaster brought to you by the New South Wales Government and the Federal Government."
"It's Australia, we're not bloody fourth-world, fifth-world country for Christ sake," Mr Arnold said.
"It makes me feel like crying."
The anger flared again when Mr Blair sped in a boat by hundreds of protesters gathered on the Darling riverbank this morning to meet him.
However, Mr Blair’s spokesperson said the minister was unable to stop because it was a security issue and he was not avoiding a confrontation with locals.
“There were threats made to the minister’s safety on social media which meant that the location where he was meeting locals had to be changed to allow police to attend. But he still met and spoke with locals later,” the spokeswoman said.
It is understood that at least half a dozen police officers were in attendance when the minister did stop to speak with locals.
In a statement issued on Monday, the Department of Primary Industries Senior Fisheries Manager, Anthony Townsend, said hundreds of thousands of fish had been affected by the algal bloom event.
“The ongoing drought conditions across western NSW have resulted in fish kills in a number of waterways recently and today our fisheries officers have confirmed a major fish kill event,” Mr Townsend said.
“After a very hot period, a sharp cool change hit the Menindee region over the weekend, with large temperature drops experienced.
“This sudden drop in temperature may have disrupted an existing algal bloom at Menindee, killing the algae and resulting in the depletion of dissolved oxygen.”
Richard Kingsford, Director of the Centre for Ecosystem Science at the University of NSW, told The Sydney Morning Herald that the real number of dead fish could be “up to a million fish”.
Professor Kingsford said the Menindee Lakes had been drained twice in the past four years which made such disasters more likely.
"It's a classic example of nature biting back," he said.
