Public Accounts and Estimates Committee: budget estimates 2011-12 (part 1)
Mr PALLAS (Tarneit) — I wish to refer to page 116 of the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee (PAEC) report on the 2011-12 budget estimates, part 1, which deals with the hearings relating to the Ports portfolio. Key matters raised at the budget estimates hearings involved both the feasibility of relocating car imports and exports to Geelong, at pages 8 to 9 of the transcript, and the development of the port of Hastings, including transport links, at pages 11 to 12 of the transcript. The people of Geelong have had every right to believe that the government had a clear plan to facilitate the development of the vehicle trade and its relocation to Geelong. The people of Geelong were told that the vehicle trade could generate up to 1000 jobs in the Geelong region and add $200 million to the output of the economy. Indeed that was the evidence of the current minister before PAEC, found at page 4.
However, today the government has confirmed that this was a cruel hoax. As the opposition has been saying for many months now, simply producing a press release and indicating that you are undertaking a feasibility study does not create one job. Indeed, poorly handled it can create an enormous amount of concern and hurt in the community. The Geelong region has received a kick in the guts from the Baillieu government, which has broken its promise to deliver 1000 new jobs to the port of Geelong by transferring Victoria’s car trade to the port and providing something like $200 million to the local economy.
This is devastating news for this community, and it has been sneakily delivered under the noise of the state budget in the hope that Victorians will not notice that the Baillieu government has broken another promise. This is deceptive behaviour that is a consequence of a rush of policy blood to the head by the minister and has not been properly thought through.
Today we know what everybody in this industry knew and what the opposition has been saying for many months: that the relocation will not be able to happen. The minister has finally confirmed in a media release that this is the case.
We knew that it was not going to happen. Nissan, Toyota, Holden and the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries have all described it as ill founded and said that it could not proceed. It was effectively just a crackpot idea from a government that had not thought the issue through. In effect this has done nothing to assist Geelong with its genuine problems associated with port development or indeed long-term job creation.
On 3 February 2011 the Minister for Ports released a media release with the headline ‘Coalition’s massive job boost for the port of Geelong’. The media release went on to say that this was just a feasibility study.
The opposition has been warning that this feasibility study would ultimately prove that it was not feasible. The work had already been done some time ago by the opposition while it was in government. It was quite clear that the plan could not proceed. But not only that, the government also put a ‘Policy implemented’ stamp on what was nothing more than a feasibility study, which has broken the hearts of the people of Geelong.
The government needs a jobs plan, not half-baked promises that effectively come to nothing. The government needs to start scrutinising its ideas before it creates public expectations. I will discuss this further in the context of the government’s plans for the port of Hastings. The minister has said he believes Hastings should be developed as a container port within a much shorter time frame than the 20 years the previous government proposed.
We need to start looking sensibly at our ports policy, and we need to look critically at Hastings as against other alternative options, because if the port of Hastings in fact proved to be the best investment, given the time lines that are now being proposed, it would constitute up to $15 billion worth of investment. This is a substantial amount of money; in fact it would be the largest single infrastructure development in this state.
The government needs to get behind the idea of scrutinising this proposal against a Bay West proposal. Why? Because effectively the Victorian Freight and Logistics Council, the Property Council of Australia and the general manager of the Toll Group all believe that decisions like this need to be thoroughly researched, and they are happy to support governments getting the right outcome. Even the federal minister has said you have to scrutinise the proposal for the port of Hastings against alternative capital investments. If that is not done, the same tawdry result that has occurred with the port of Geelong will occur.