Western Victoria Region
Mr MEDDICK (Western Victoria) (12:36): (1740) My question is raised by the thousands of concerned citizens of the northern suburbs of Geelong, and they ask for the Minister for Planning to reject the proposal from Viva Energy to establish an LNG platform in Corio Bay just as he rejected a similar proposal from AGL. This platform has all the same environmental concerns that halted AGL’s application, but one other is also present here: should just one small failure occur in the engineered safety systems at the terminal or a single storage cell of a ship as it makes its way through the bay, the resultant explosion and fire will wipe out all the homes in a radius that stretches many kilometres from the point of origin, killing thousands of people. Such failures are not uncommon in this industry, and the results are always catastrophic. Will the minister listen to the residents of Geelong’s north and dismiss the Viva application and in so doing protect the environment of the bay and the lives of those who call the area home?