Thursday, 30 June 2011: Media release New legislation due to be debated in State Parliament today will set the Victorian Government on a collision course with environment and community groups over plans to expand the Port of Hastings in Westernport Bay.
The legislation will establish a new Port of Hastings Development Authority to fast-track port expansion plans and transform the area into a highly urbanised industrial zone, projected to be busier than the Port of Melbourne.
"The primary purpose of this new legislation is to encourage the rapid expansion of the Port of Hastings into a container port, with little consideration of protecting and enhancing Westernport Bay's immense environmental and recreational values," said the Victorian National Parks Association's Marine and Coastal Project Officer Simon Branigan.
"The new legislation for the Port of Hastings Development Authority should have the protection of the bay's environmental values as its core operating goal, not just fast-tracking development based on a projected growth in container shipping traffic."
Blue Wedges Coalition spokesperson Jenny Warfe said once the development proceeds to the Environmental Effects Statement (EES) phase the proponents control the process, with economics being the focus, not the environment.
"EES assessments of major infrastructure projects have invariably relied on economic analyses which ignore any assessment of the costs of environmental services lost - nor have they objectively assessed the real economic benefits of the proposed development," she said.
"According to a 2006 Port of Hastings Land Use and Transport Strategy Report, the port will have a capacity of 3.7 million shipping containers a year by 2035, so it will be even more busy and congested than the Port of Melbourne, which currently handles around 2.2 million containers a year."
The Westernport and Peninsula Protection Council's Karri Giles said the expansion plans could ruin the bay's fragile marine environment, including internationally significant Ramsar-listed wetlands.
"It's unbelievable that in the 40th anniversary year of the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, the Victorian Government is proposing a massive industrial container shipping port that could result in the death of Westernport Bay as a healthy, functioning ecosystem and place for recreation."
Last November 16 environment and community groups released a joint statement calling for a halt on Port of Hastings expansion plans based on the huge impact this development would have on Westernport's environmental and recreational values.