THE environment movement says a key organisation campaigning against the Murray-Darling rescue plan should be ignored because it is a front group for big business that is pretending to be community-based.

The Basin Communities Association, which has emerged as a key player in the debate, is expecting up to 400 people at a meeting tomorrow in the New South Wales town of Griffith, where last year the basin ''guide'' was set alight by angry irrigators.

The environment movement has called for The Basin Communities Association to be ignored. Credit:Angela Wylie

The Wilderness Society's river campaigner Chris Daley says the association is a front group for the NSW Irrigators' Council, which represents most of Australia's rice and cotton farmers.

''These front groups are set up to stir up anxiety and create a sense of distrust over the process,'' Mr Daley said. ''Their hidden agendas have little to do with the general well-being of the community and more to do with the future opportunities of big agricultural interests.''