COMMITTEE for Gippsland has welcomed a new freight and logistics vision for Victoria, saying a number of the plans’ key priorities supported the committee’s work.
Victoria – The Freight State, released in recent weeks, appeared to endorse a potential third major airport for Victoria to be built in the southeast of the state, or Gippsland, according to C4G chief executive Mary Aldred.
She said this is a “major development, after (C4G) comprehensively addressed this issue in its submission to the Melbourne Let’s Talk About the Future Metropolitan Planning discussion paper earlier this year” as well as raising it with a range of ministers and members of parliament”.
“If proceeded with, this is a great win for Gippsland.”
“There is demand for a third airport in Gippsland and the south-east, it would service a growing population base of more than two and a half million people – that’s 125 per cent more than what Adelaide Airport services.”
Ms Aldred said C4G also welcomed the plan’s support for both North East-Link and East-West Link, a proposed freeway and cross-city road connection, both of which it also “advocated strongly for”.
“These projects will help connect Gippsland to the Hume Freeway to the north, and present efficiency savings for transport operators and manufacturers in our region,” she said.
A priority to consider developing the South East Rail Link, which would provide a dedicated rail freight link between Dandenong and Dynon, also had the potential to “help address capacity constraints on the Dandenong Rail Corridor for both freight and passenger rail” .
The paper sets out a number of strategies, and Ms Aldred said it was “worth noting that Gippsland is identified as a region to work with industry and port managers to facilitate the provision of bulk port capacity for the export of brown coal products from Gippsland in the event that commercial export opportunities are develop”.
Meanwhile C4G will host a member forum next Tuesday at Coal Creek in Korumburra with state shadow ministers John Lenders and Natalie Hutchins, both of whom hold infrastructure portfolios.
