18-01-2008

Greens MP, Sue Pennicuik today said it was a very sad day for Port Phillip Bay and the people of Victoria to see massive dredge ships entering Port Phillip Heads, where they will soon be gouging a great trench.

'The sight of the dredgers makes me feel sick at heart', she said. 'I feel so angry that the state government is determined to push ahead with channel deepening despite so many warnings from eminent scientists, economists, retired harbour masters and sea pilots, who independently of the Port of Melbourne and the state government, have been warning of the risks of channel deepening', she said.

'We know there will be no change from one billion dollars - I predicted hat more than a year ago. I predict that the cost will blow out to more ike 1.2 billion before too long and for a return of an (over estimate) of  mere 60 million per year over 30 years! And no sign that any of this altry return will benefit one Victorian citizen", she said.

Even worse, just as dredging is scheduled to start, we are faced with just he sort of scenario that Graham Harris - author of the seminal 1990's CSIRO study of Port Phillip Bay, warned us of: a series of events that together could spell ecological disaster for the Bay. The current mysterious sick fish in the Bay are surely a warning for any responsible government to heed', she said.

Unfortunately, the state government is so hopelessly conflicted as proponent, assessor and 'regulator' (or is that just monitor) of the project, that it can't act objectively and appears to believe it must press ahead at any cost to preserve Melbourne's premier Port status. The ecology of the Bay must come first, not the size of the port in some sort of macho port competition between states', she said.

'I call on the state government to indefinitely postpone this stupid project and concentrate on increasing port freight to rail to reduce the havoc that excessive truck freight is causing in surrounding suburbs and on all our roads. I also call on the federal government to convene an Inquiry into moving freight around Australia in environmentally and economically sustainable ways. Channel deepening is neither of these', she said.


Further information: Sue Pennicuik  9530 8399 or Colleen Hartland  0417 445 845