New Board welcomed to Hastings
18-January-2012
Member for Hastings, Neale Burgess joined Minister for Ports Denis Napthine in Hastings today to welcome the inaugural members of the newly established Port of Hastings Development Authority Board.
As part of the visit the Minister and Board toured existing Port of Hastings facilities.
Dr Napthine said: “the meeting was another important milestone in establishing Victoria’s new container port and brought together for the first time the highly experienced team that would work closely with the community to plan the way forward for development of the port.”
Dr Napthine added: “The Port of Hastings Development Authority (PoHDA) was established specifically to address concerns around the future of freight in Victoria and fast-track development. The Authority will immediately commence project scoping investigations into the technical, environmental, social and economic issues which would need to be addressed as part of the port’s development.”
The Board, headed by Chairman Yehudi Blacher, brings a wealth of knowledge and is supported by members with a strong cross section of skills and experience across the ports and freight, business, legal and finance sectors.
Mr Burgess said: “After meeting with the Board today I’m very confident that we have the right mix of expertise, knowledge and enthusiasm to ensure this very important project is developed successfully and according to world’s best practise.”
The project will involve the development of new port facilities at the Port of Hastings and upgraded road and rail infrastructure to move millions of containers to and from the port.
Container movements in and out of Victoria are forecast to quadruple over the next 25 years from just over 2 million TEU’s to more than 8 million and establishing a second port to relieve the congestion at the Port of Melbourne is critical to ensuring Victoria’s continued economic success.
Dr Napthine said: “A thriving ports and freight sector is critical to Victoria’s and the nation’s economy, and I am confident that the new Board will provide the organisational leadership required to realise the development of the Port of Hastings as Victoria’s second container terminal.
“Existing trade through the Port of Hastings includes import and export of oil, LPG, ULP and steel and amounts to more than two million tonnes of cargo per annum.” Dr Napthine said.
Dr Napthine added: “As an already operating port, with naturally occurring deep water, extensive areas of reserved port related land, an available work force and being just one hour from the state capital, Hastings is ideally situated to be Victoria’s second container port.”
Mr Burgess said: “One of the most important things a State Government can do is to create jobs for its people and development of the Port of Hastings will be a powerful job creator for the Hastings community and more broadly across our region.”
Mr Burgess added: “Every local job created will mean an income for a family and extra money through local businesses and services.”
Development of the Port of Hastings is now a state priority.
A very wide and thorough search was conducted to ensure that very high calibre people with the right skill sets were selected for the Board of the Port of Hastings Development Authority.
Mr Burgess added: “The Board's first task is to conduct the very important social, economic and environmental impact studies and these studies will involve very thorough community consultation.”
Mr Burgess said: “Development of the Port of Hastings is a State priority, and that development will be planned and conducted in a very thorough and careful manner that takes into account the interests of all stakeholders.”
Media: Neale Burgess 5977 5600