By CASEY NEILL
AN expanded Port of Hastings would give a $1 billion boost to the region.
Southern Melbourne Regional Development Australia (RDA) chairman John Bennie presented the figure at a Committee for Dandenong briefing about the proposed port development.
He told those gathered in Dandenong South on 22 July that the $60 billion a year generated in gross regional product in southern Melbourne would increase by $1 billion if Hastings opened.
Mr Bennie said the port would also create 5700 jobs and offset damage to the automotive industry supply chain caused by car company closures.
“This project is of critical importance to this region,” he said.
Ports Minister David Hodgett and Port of Hastings Development Authority CEO Mike Lean spoke at the briefing about the port’s benefits to Victoria’s economy, in contrast to the Opposition’s Bay West proposal.
In attendance were representatives from local businesses and both sides of politics from state, federal and local governments.
Mr Hodgett said Melbourne was the freight and logistics capital of Australia.
“We don’t want to lose that crown,” he said.
The Port of Melbourne will reach capacity some time in the next 10-15 years.
“We’re going to need a second port at a stage where it’s ready to accept containers when Port Melbourne reaches capacity,” he said.
“We don’t want to reach capacity and then think ’Ooh, we better think about another port’.”
Mr Hodgett said the Port of Hastings would also cut cross-city travelling.
“The trucks come out of Melbourne, go across the Westgate Bridge to their distribution centres, they get broken up and come back across the bridge, out to the south east,” he said.
He said another issue facing the Port of Melbourne was access.
“Over the next 20 years we will expect to see ships twice the size of the ships we’re seeing today,” he said.
“Those vessels are going to be deeper, they’re going to be longer, they’re going to be wider.
“They’re going to require a draft of up to 16 metres.
“Those ships are not going to be able to enter Port Phillip Bay without considerable dredging at the heads and widening of the heads.”
He said this carried a significant environmental and financial cost.
“If we’re serious about Melbourne being a world-class port, I think we need to be prepared,” he said.
The Port of Botany in Sydney and the Port of Brisbane were already preparing to accommodate ships with a 16-metre draft.
“Locking Victoria’s economy into a 14-metre draft height is a high-risk strategy,” he said.
Mr Lean said Hastings had a number of significant natural deep water channels.
“Hastings’ channels today can take the largest container ship in the world,” he said.
He said Dandenong was the number one destination for freight out of the Port of Melbourne.
“Every container that comes into Victoria leaves it at some point,” he said.
“When a full container is brought to Dandenong, it has to be driven back to the Port of Melbourne.”
Lyndhurst MP Martin Pakula said Labor’s position was clear.
“A comprehensive and transparent cost benefit analysis will be undertaken to test how Hastings stands up against Bay West and other possible sites,” he said.
“A future Victorian Labor Government will establish Infrastructure Victoria, with responsibility for providing independent and transparent advice about key infrastructure projects and their priority, including a second container port for Victoria.”
