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16th of October 2024, 5:42pm
Parliament of Victoria | Legislative Council

David ETTERSHANK (Western Metropolitan):

I rise to speak on the petition before the house, and I move:

That the Council take note of the petition presented by me on 27 August 2024.

The fight to halt the Little River freight terminal had all the hallmarks of an epic battle: a corporate giant up against the plucky little community and environmental groups trying to save the highly sensitive grasslands that surround them. It has been a thrilling ride so far.

Little River is located south of Werribee in a green wedge zone. It adjoins the renowned Ramsar wetlands of Werribee South, which has a greater diversity of birdlife than Kakadu National Park. Crucially it is surrounded by the critically endangered western plains grasslands, the last 1 per cent of volcanic plains grassland in Victoria. The Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action describes the area as an:

… irreplaceable grassland ecosystem …

which was once:

… filled with delicate orchids, wildflowers, birds, reptiles, insects and marsupials, some of which were found nowhere else in Australia …

which have:

… almost disappeared due to clearing for agriculture, grazing, and urban development.

The initial plan was to acquire the land and restore the Western Grassland Reserve. I will talk about that later, but let us return to the fight at Little River and the petition before this place.

In 2021 Pacific National announced plans to develop a mammoth freight storage facility on this highly sensitive land, which is home to hundreds of native species, including the critically endangered growling grass frog, striped legless lizard and the golden sun moth, to name a few. On top of the direct damage to the grasslands, this ill-conceived project would have resulted in an estimated 2 million shipping containers a year passing through the site and thousands of truck movements through the area on a weekly basis. It was an environmental disaster waiting to happen, and the proposal was condemned by stakeholders across the board, including the City of Wyndham, who rejected Pacific National’s planning application. Hats off to the council for their courage and vision.

Then in 2023 the Minister for Planning invited Pacific National to prepare an environment effects statement. We met with the Little River Action Group around this time to start to work on a strategy for a campaign. I have rarely seen a community take to organising with such focus and flair. I speak for myself and my fantastic staff when I say it has been an honour and a privilege to work with the Little River Action Group. The community gathered almost 5000 signatures for the petition before us, and to put that in some perspective, that is about three times the size of the township itself. And then last month Pacific National announced that it was withdrawing its VCAT action to overturn Wyndham council’s decision.

However, Pacific National appear to have not so much abandoned the project as to have shelved it for the time being. So the battle was won but not the war – which brings me back to the Western Grassland Reserve. In 2006 the Victorian and Commonwealth governments endorsed the Melbourne Strategic Assessment to acquire, remediate and preserve 15,000 hectares of western plains grassland in recognition of the importance of preserving this fragile ecosystem. The MSA identified 43 sites of preservation and gave developers permission to clear the rest. Developers pay an offset fee to be used to fund the purchase of the Western Grassland Reserve, but the whole endeavour has gone the way of so many of these well-intentioned but underscrutinised projects, where the environment carries all the risk and the property developers reap all the rewards. Irreplaceable remnant native grassland is being bulldozed and traded for grassland of inferior environmental value, and the land acquisition program after 18 years is only 20 per cent complete.

But this little win in Little River is worth considering in the wider context of the MSA. I call on the government to continue to acquire, remediate and preserve more land for the Western Grassland Reserve and to include the Little River freight terminal site.

This battle against Pacific National is an example of what communities achieve when they mobilise and fight for what they believe in. Now all we need is for the government to step up and demonstrate its commitment to the community and the environment by acquiring this strategic and precious site.

[Debate continued]

David ETTERSHANK (Western Metropolitan):

Firstly, may I thank the other speakers on this motion. I would also like to thank the council offices and the government advisers who assisted us in shaping such a good outcome. I would like to take this opportunity also to say how delighted we all were to see the Little River Action Group and the campaigners at the Grassy Plains Network awarded an Environment Victoria 2024 community environment recognition award for their outstanding work.

I noted in my contribution the fact that Pacific National have shelved their plans to build a freight terminal in Little River, but they have not abandoned them. I also touched briefly on the Melbourne Strategic Assessment and the Western Grasslands Reserve, noting that only 20 per cent of the land has been acquired since the project’s inception in 2006. Almost 20 years after it began, the Western Grasslands Reserve project has not significantly progressed. The notional 15,000 hectares of those grasslands make up the last 1 per cent of Victoria’s volcanic grasslands, as Dr Mansfield quite correctly identified. This incredibly sensitive area is highly valued by the people of the west.

In my members statement this morning I spoke on the question of public transport and how many residents in the west feel unheard and underappreciated. They may well feel the same when it comes to tree coverage, open space and clean air. While the residents may have saved the grasslands this time, it is only a matter of time before the next act of approved environmental vandalism is dumped upon them. So I reiterate my call on the government to take further action to protect Melbourne’s green wedges and the western grasslands and to acquire this precious site at Little River in particular.

[Motion agreed to]

[Awaiting Minister’s response – due 15th of November]

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