By Hamish Heard
THE report on which Victorian Planning Minister Justin Madden based his approval for controversial plans to dredge shipping channels in the Yarra River is hopelessly flawed, according to opponents of the project.
Blue Wedges Coalition spokeswoman Jo Samuel-King said that an independent panel’s report into the likely environmental effects of the project was “one of the lamest public inquiry reports ever produced”.
Mr Madden last month used the report to justify his decision to give the green light to the $763 million project.
But Dr Samuel-King said the report was based on a “flawed process” and written by a panel “without the required expertise to make a good decision”.
“One key question that the inquiry ought to have answered was, ‘Is it safe to release millions of tonnes of toxic sediment and dump it in the bay’. But this has not been answered in the report,” she said.
“Anyone who has followed the progress of the channel deepening project from its inception can only conclude that the inquiry was geared to find in favour of the project in order that it may proceed in January 2008.”
Project proponents say that dredging Port Phillip Bay and the Yarra River will add more than $13 billion to Australia’s GDP by 2030 by allowing bigger container ships into Melbourne ports.
Dr Samuel-King said the report gave too much credence to economic forecasts and glossed over predictions that the release of dredge material into the bay would inflict permanent changes to bayside beaches.
“No economic assessment of environmental impacts was made,” she said.
Dr Samuel-King said the report did not protect commercial fishing interests or those of protected fish species by failing to insist that there was no dredging during peak spawning periods.
But a spokesman for Mr Madden, Licardo Prince, denied the report was unfairly skewed in favour of the project.
“The Minister’s assessment followed an exhaustive process that allowed the public and stakeholders a full and fair opportunity to put forward their views and provide input,” he said.
“The community can be confident that this process has been up with the world’s best.”
Mr Prince said the report drew on more than 40 expert studies and 15,000 pages of detailed technical advice.
Blue Wedges Coalition is preparing a Federal Court challenge to the project in anticipation of final state approvals being granted by Victoria’s Environment Minister, Gavin Jennings, and Ports and Roads Minister Tim Pallas.
The project also hinges on the outcome of this month’s federal election, with the successful party’s environment minister having the final decision.
