Wednesday, 21 September 2022

 Mr MEDDICK (Western Victoria) (17:23): Not too long ago I raised the spectre of the proposed floating gas platform as an adjournment matter in this house with the then Minister for Planning, the Honourable Richard Wynne. Nothing has changed, except that the need for action from the new minister, the Honourable Lizzie Blandthorn, is becoming more urgent. I repeat that request now: that the minister deny the application from Viva Energy in Geelong to establish a gas transfer platform in Corio Bay in the same manner that the AGL floating gas platform application was denied. I repeat: there was a huge outcry and campaign when AGL announced their plans for a gas platform, and the government was bound, as always, to consider it on its merits. They had to consider all the impacts and balance them against the commercial wants of a large corporation and the disastrous outcomes for the environment and population should something go wrong.

The two proposals differ in many ways, not least of which are the characteristics of the location. Many visitors to the nearby area would see what at first glance looked like not much of the typical idyllic Victorian foreshore and because of the abundance of houses might think that the area was already in some sort of decline. The north of Geelong has long been unfairly maligned in this way and been treated as a dumping ground for all that the more aspirational suburbs did not want. This is because historically the area was part of Geelong’s industrial heartland. But let me tell you: Geelong’s north is home to the most honest, hardworking, passionate and down-to-earth Victorians, and the establishment of a gas platform next to their homes has them scared and angry.

One breach of a single LNG compartment from a ship would result in an asphyxiating flammable vapour cloud extending a minimum of 2.5 kilometres from the source, straight into the heavily populated suburbs. The smallest of sparks would ignite a blaze so fierce that all buildings and human life would be consumed in a fire that cannot be extinguished but relies upon the entire fuel source to be consumed before going out. Their lives are as important as anyone’s and a large multinational has no right to put them at risk. It has been said that the foreshore there is bereft of life and also the bay, and certainly it would seem a miracle that there would be life beneath those waters after all the chemical spills that have occurred there over the years. But life there does exist. Pockets of thriving habitat provide homes for a varied population of bay dwellers that for many years were in decline, but all are making a steady comeback, and that rejuvenation should not be threatened by the potential for a disaster.

Viva Energy has an appalling record on safety. They are fined for spills into the bay with monotonous regularity. They injure workers severely at an alarming rate. So when they say they can be trusted not to cause a disaster to both the environment and human life, they simply cannot. Make no mistake, the impacts of a huge disaster from their lax measures will not just be felt by the residents of the north but by all of Geelong and all of Melbourne. This would be a catastrophe we have not seen since Coode Island, and it will be worse. Will the minister listen to the people of the north of Geelong and deny this application just as her predecessor denied the one from AGL?