Tanya Plibersek rejected this clean energy project. The Allan government is trying again
Victoria has pledged to scale back its original proposal to get it over the line, cutting the amount of land reclamation by about 35 per cent and promising to dredge 70 per cent less of the sea bed.
The Victorian government says the Port of Hastings project is essential to meet its target for construction of offshore wind farms, which the state is banking on to replace the energy lost as ageing coal-fired generators come offline.
But the project is near wetlands protected by the Ramsar convention, an agreement signed by more than 170 countries, and in January 2024 then-environment minister Tanya Plibersek found the original proposal would have an unacceptable environmental impact and was 'likely to cause irreversible damage' to this habitat.
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The saga has already delayed the project's completion date by two years.
In response to the federal government's concerns, the Port of Hastings Corporation this week launched a new application for a 'substantially modified project' and published a response to each of the issues outlined in the rejection notice.
The total area of land it proposes to reclaim from the sea has been reduced from 29 hectares to 18 hectares, while the area needing to be dredged has been refined and reduced by 70 per cent. Both of the works have also been moved to minimise their impact.
The Port of Hastings argues that the changes mean 0.07 per cent of habitat within the protected wetland is now proposed to be affected.
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