THE state government was warned in 2017 from Infrastructure Victoria about the difficulty of getting approval for dredging development at the Port of Hastings, according to independent reports and documents analysed by The Age.
Infrastructure Victoria identified multiple environmental challenges for the development that could cause delays of up to several years.
The Port of Hastings dredging was to transform the area into a suitable place to construct wind turbines that would be used to power wind farms off the coast of Gippsland. It was an important part of the state government’s plans to reduce emissions.
Last week, the federal Minister for Environment, Tanya Plibersek, blocked the proposed developments at Port of Hastings on environmental grounds.
Ms Plibersek noted the social and economic benefit of the Port of Hastings project, but said the ecological impacts of the Western Port Ramsar Wetland (WPRW) could not be mitigated or offset.
A spokesperson for the federal Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water (DECCEEW) believed the Victorian Renewable Energy Terminal proposal would have had unacceptable impacts on the internationally protected Western Port Ramsar Wetland.
“The proposal was deemed clearly unacceptable under national environment law,” the spokesperson said.
No specific environmental mitigation measures or offsets were offered in the state government’s application, but the state government said it was normal for applications not to include such measures until later in the development process.
Instead, the application claimed that dredging would be done as per best practise, however the federal government rejected the proposal saying the environmental impact was still too great.
A state government spokesperson told The Age that developers were ready to invest in Australia, and that the state government would work with the federal government to determine the next steps for the development.
Shadow Minister for Energy, Affordability and Security, David Davis expressed frustration at the outcome.
“Labor have botched their approach to offshore wind. Incompetently the Minister for Energy has put forward shallow and inadequate material to the Commonwealth despite having clear warnings that there would be trouble,” he said.
