The battle for Hastings

Greens candidate for Hastings Catherine Manning says Mr. Brumby’s grand plan for the destruction of Westernport is becoming clear now that the Port of Hastings has been earmarked for export of brown coal within a decade. A Transport Department document released to The Greens reveals 12 million tonnes of Victoria’s brown coal could be shipped offshore each year within a decade along with another 4 million tonnes of liquid fuel derived from coal. Woodchip exports from East Gippsland have also been touted as possible future exports through the Port of Hastings.

“Clean coal is an oxymoron and it’s not going to be the economic saviour for Westernport either” says Catherine, who has been leading a campaign against the proposed major expansion of the Port of Hastings for several years. “Government continues to churn out the same tired old “business as usual” plans when what is really needed is a new mindset and a new economy built around clean renewable technologies.

You’d have to wonder if any of our elected Labor of Liberal representatives have heard of, let alone understand the implications of climate change, sea level rise and peak oil. On one hand scientists tell us that Westernport is particularly vulnerable to the impending impacts of climate change[1] and yet according to Mr. Brumby its future lies in reliance on the very industries that have cranked up the impacts of climate change: coal production, woodchips, and moving millions of containers of low value items in pollution belching ships and trucks”.

Planning Minister Madden recently approved the Crib Point Boral bitumen plant despite an Independent Panel recommending against it. The Port of Melbourne Corporation juggernaut recently took over the Port of Hastings Corporation and plans to turn Hastings Port into something twice the current size of the Port of Melbourne.

"It’s pretty clear that Mr. Brumby and his operatives reckon Westernport and Hastings Township is of no use other than as a massive polluting container port and storage hub for dirty industries."

Samantha Dunn, Greens candidate for Eastern Victoria said of the uncovering, "These documents show how smitten with coal this government is. It has no plans to stop using coal, but wants to expand ways to use this dirty, greenhouse emitting fossil fuel as Victoria's economic saviour, at the expense of not only the RAMSAR listed Westernport, but of our sustainable economic future too.”

Ms Manning says that being elected as the Greens MP for the Hastings electorate will ensure that the concerns of local residents, leading scientists and experts concerned about the impacts of the proposed Port of Hastings development are brought to the table, and that the Government is held accountable instead of riding rough shod over the community.

Further information: Samantha Dunn 0429 29 29 04 or samantha.dunn@vic.greens.org.au

western port ecosystem more important than plans to expand port of hastings

The Greens have rejected the government's proposal to abolish the Port of Hastings Corporation and incorporate it into the Port of Melbourne Corporation, under the Ports Integration bill in state parliament this week.

Sue Pennicuik, Greens spokesperson for Ports said. "The Greens have grave concerns about the impact of a larger Port of Hastings on the local environment and on Western Port Bay, which is a Ramsar-listed wetland."

"This is the Year of Biodiversity and our wetlands are havens for biodiversity - we should be protecting and enhancing them. We have already lost too much," she said. "Western Port Bay is a haven for the thousands of water birds that visit it from all around the world every year and a unique tidal mud flat ecosystem that is very precious to Victorians."

"While the Coalition also rejected the Ports Integration Bill, they and the government want to see the Port of Hastings develop full steam ahead into a significant container port," she said. "This is the wrong way to go, we should be looking first at preserving and enhancing the integrity of Western Port for future generations."

"The health and long-term integrity of Western Port is paramount. Any development at Hastings needs to fit in with the long term needs of the ecosystem, not the usual approach of dreaming up a massive development proposal and then trying to 'manage' the environmental damage," she said.

"Western Port has already suffered much damage, in terms of pollution and loss of sea grass and mangroves, due to Port and other activities on its shores," she said. "This level of damage cannot continue into the future and that is the threshold issue that needs to be addressed before any Port expansion plans are entertained."

"The inconvenient truth is most likely that the Port of Hastings should be down scaled, not expanded, in order to preserve the Western Port ecosystem for future generations."