11th of September 2024, 9:48am
Legislative Council of Victoria, Melbourne
David ETTERSHANK (Western Metropolitan):
The western suburbs of Melbourne is the logistics heart of our state, handling the lion’s share of freight and distribution from the port and servicing much of the state’s manufacturing capacity. The western suburbs also accommodate some of the fastest growing residential populations in the country. Invariably there are tensions that arise between these alternate uses.
Of particular concern has been the impact of trucks and their negative impact in residential and mixed-use areas in terms of noise and air pollution and their hugely negative impact on resident health and amenity. In this context I rise to welcome the decision by the government to convert the old wholesale market site in West Melbourne into a container transport and storage area.
The site will have the capacity to store up to 1 million containers a year, which equates to around a third of the containers passing through the ports on an annual basis. For this change to be meaningful, it is essential that the new site is operationalised promptly and concrete measures are taken to reduce the number of ad hoc container storage yards scattered across the inner west.
I would also be remiss to ignore the decision of Pacific National to abandon the totally inappropriate freight terminal proposal at Little River. My love and respect to the residents of Little River and our allies in the environment movement, who have illustrated incredible determination in fighting off this proposal, saving both the town and an invaluable slice of threatened western grasslands.
[ENDS]
