ONE of Australia’s leading logistics experts has urged the state government to sell the Port of Melbourne for residential development and invest the proceeds in a new port near Werribee.
Paul Little, former head of freight and logistics at Toll Holdings, said the government’s planned $12 billion port expansion at Hastings would be a “financial disaster” for the freight industry, warning Victoria would lose major warehousing and distribution centres to other states.
Mr Little called on the government to implement a “two-port strategy”, with the state’s major container port located between Werribee and Geelong. Hastings would remain a deep-water port accessible to a small number of ships that will not fit through the Port Phillip Bay heads.
He said the Port of Melbourne – the last major government-owned port on the eastern seaboard – would be “surplus to needs” and could be sold to housing developers for about $7 billion, which would partly fund the new port in the west.
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Mr Little’s proposal is at odds with long-standing plans to develop the state’s second major container terminal at Hastings to complement container trade at the Port of Melbourne, which is expected to reach capacity by 2027.
Despite growing support for the new port to be built on the west side of the bay, May’s state budget allocated $110 million to start planning the Hastings development.
Avalon Airport, Wyndham and Geelong councils, and the Australian Logistics Council, called for further consideration of a ‘‘Bay West’’ port, citing proximity to airports, the standard-gauge rail freight network and logistics hubs at Truganina, Laverton North and Geelong.
In a speech in Point Cook, hosted by the Committee for Wyndham, Mr Little said building a port at the “remote” Hastings site would be a massive blow to “state, national and in some cases global distribution” operations in the western suburbs.
He said a large percentage of containers would require multiple handling, transportation costs could double, and companies would relocate distribution centres interstate.
Mr Little said the cost of building a standard-gauge rail link and adequate freeway access to Hastings would be “difficult if not impossible to fund and justify”.
Ports Minister David Hodgett said he was committed to keeping Victoria the “freight and logistics capital of Australia” by expanding the Port of Melbourne and establishing Hastings as the second port.
He said the government had conducted an extensive study into the possibility of a container port in the west, but it found no location that matched the benefits of Hastings.
“In addition to the immense pressure it would place on the road network between Geelong and Melbourne, the waters to the west are simply not deep enough,” he said.
Mr Little said fewer than 5 per cent of ships that came to Victoria would be unable to access a Bay West port, and those ships could continue to be serviced by Hastings’ current infrastructure.
HASTINGS HASSLES
A Transport Department briefing to former ports minister Denis Napthine, obtained last year by the opposition under freedom of information, revealed the Hastings option would be bogged down by ‘‘complex environmental management requirements’’ and expensive additional transport links.
The report said a ‘‘Bay West’’ port offered ‘‘significant potential advantages’’, including an ‘‘almost unlimited’’ potential berth capacity and proximity to key road and rail networks.
Although it supported Hastings when in government, the opposition has pledged to review the location of the state’s next port if it wins the next election, claiming new advice indicates current plans are deeply flawed.
Former freight and logistics chief Paul Little said it was not “beyond the realms of possibility” for Dr Napthine to change his mind.
‘‘At the moment, he is very dogmatic about the outcomes he wants, and to spend $100 million verifying that borders on a less than adequate use of taxpayers’ money,’’ he said.
