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LABOR RE-NOURISHES THE BEACH BUT DUMPS ON THE BAY!

THURSDAY 9^TH NOVEMBER 2006

Mr. Thwaites is to be commended for his announcement today (November 9^th) at Mordialloc pier to re-nourish the depleted sands of the Mordialloc beach – but where’s the sense in saving the beach whilst contemplating a toxic dump just off shore?  

If the contentious channel deepening proposal was to proceed, up to 3 million tonnes of toxic and contaminated spoil would be dumped in the Bay close to Mordialloc – making a trip to the beach a risky outing, with increased risks of toxic algal blooms, depleted fish stocks and desperation for businesses which rely on the Bay - just so that a few larger ships could come steaming up the Bay.  

Blue Wedges spokesperson and Port of Melbourne Corporation Public Stakeholder Advisory Committee (PSAC) member Jenny Warfe says that the recent October PSAC meeting was told that consideration of treating and managing the toxic and contaminated sediment on land has recently been dismissed by the PoMC due, in their words to the enormous volume of the spoil, and the prohibitive cost. “Dumping the spoil at sea, within a clay bund covered with a fine layer of coarser sediments from the South of the Bay is little improvement over the proposal which PoMC put before the Independent Panel in 2004, and for which the Panel and the public expressed such deep concerns. Over two years more work and taxpayer funds without progress suggests it’s about time the government admitted the project just is not do-able without massive risks to the Bay and our economy” says Jenny.

“With our increasing knowledge of the effects of global warming, reducing oil supplies and greenhouse gas emissions it seems that now would be a perfect time to review those infrastructure projects which were conceived from an earlier mindset - as was the present channel deepening project. There is little doubt that the electorate at large would applaud such a measured approach.

The few remaining sceptics such as Andrew Bolt and VECCI et al will soon be required anyway to accept the greater wisdom of our resident climate change experts in CSIRO, ex CSIRO chief Dr. Graeme Pearman, Dr. Peter Cullen and international experts including George Monbiot – who in his 10^th October address via satellite link to Australia stated that in the forthcoming and necessary switch to a low carbon emissions world, the two modes of transport that we must reduce are air travel and shipping freight.

We have related similarly sobering advice from UK Chief scientist Sir David King, Ex USA Vice President Al Gore, Ex World Bank Chief Sir Nicholas Stern, and the 1500 international scientists who make up the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

It certainly seems that now is the time to review the way we do things locally and globally. Let’s start locally.” says Ms Warfe.