Sell-out ex-rocker gambles with bay

Peter Farago
WHERE’S the song Blue Water Mining or the line “Dutch bay dredger gets the nod”?
Well they’re nowhere because that champion of the environment, Peter Garrett, has sold his views on matters environmental to Kevin Rudd and John Brumby.
It’s as simple as that.
Mr Garrett, once renowned as a principled lead singer of an opinion-setting band, is a sell-out.
For those familiar with the lyrics of Midnight Oil, he’s probably humming “I hear much support for the dredging. I hear protesting in vain”.
His street cred as an environmental warrior is in tatters.
Port of Melbourne Corporation’s dredging of Port Phillip Bay channels threatens our local environment like never before.
Simply put, there’s no way State Government nor Port of Melbourne Corporation can tell whether gouging a great big hole in The Rip isn’t going to cause an environmental meltdown in, or out, of the bay. Or what it would do to the internationally protected wetlands surrounding Swan Bay.
Despite all the serious concerns surrounding the project, Mr Garrett quickly opened the gate to let the Dutch dredger Queen of the Netherlands sail into Melbourne this week.
But in recent days two prominent transport industry heavyweights have voiced their opposition to the plan.
Lindsay Fox, whose Linfox conglomerate stands to gain most from an expanded Port of Melbourne with access to move more containers, said the plans should be scrapped because the roads around the port couldn’t already cope with the volume of container traffic.
Fox said moving container traffic to Hastings, on the deeper Westernport Bay, would ease congestion in the city.
And then the chief of one of Australia’s major shipping lines, ANL’s John Lines, reportedly warned not to dredge the Yarra River because of the risk of exposing the bay to toxic sediment.
He said the Port should focus on developing the capacity of Webb Dock, at the river’s mouth.
For two major industry players to come out on the eve of the dredging to express reservations is startling.
This week, dredge opponent Blue Wedges Coalition won a court battle to challenge Mr Garrett’s approval.
The coalition said Mr Garrett gave two days consideration to a 50,000-page report on the potential environment impacts of dredging before giving it the nod.
Blue Wedges also said the plan would cause a rise in sea levels in the bay. Blue Wedges should have sent the report to Climate Change Minister Senator Penny Wong’s office for approval, too.
Whether or not Blue Wedges’ arguments gain credence when heard in detail on February 20, it highlights that the once black-and-white stance of Mr Garrett has faded to grey.
This week, as Prime Minister Kevin Rudd steers the country to say sorry to the “Stolen Generation”, perhaps Mr Garrett should prepare his own apologies – for helping bring unnecessary threats to our environment.
He’s not averse to apologising, having done it in style in 2000.