Victorian ports minister Luke Donnellan has dismissed fears the privatisation of the Port of Melbourne – crucial to funding the Level Crossing Removal Program – will rule out a second container port being built in the state.
Donnellan spoke to an attentive audience during the Institute of Chartered Shipbrokers Australia New Zealand branch 2015 gala dinner held at the Langham Hotel in Melbourne.
He reinforced his government’s focus on privatising the Port of Melbourne while keeping a second port at Hastings or elsewhere on the backburner.
The privatisation of the port – which would come in the form of a long-term lease – would go a long way towards funding the state’s plan to remove 50 of Melbourne’s ‘worst’ rail level crossings, premier Daniel Andrews has stated.
But the shipping and logistics industry has raised questions over whether a deal to sell the port would rule out the possible construction of a second container port down the road.
While he said a second box port was still on the table after Melbourne is privatised, Donnellan told the dinner audience that it would be very much ‘down the road’, however.
“There would be no government in the world that would start a second port when you’ve got a fully functional port in the centre of Melbourne which has got substantial capacity to keep increasing,” he said.
“Further, if you are actually going to put up your port up (for lease) for 50 years, the idea of suddenly selling your port while going into competition with the people you’ve just sold the port to and setting up a container port down the road … It suggests to me that no-one would buy the port of Melbourne.”
The minister went on to describe plans of the previous government for competition between Melbourne and Hastings as “absolutely bunkum”.
He told the gathering the government would look to Infrastructure Victoria to provide “an independent assessment” on a site for a second port in the longer term whether that was Hastings or ‘Bay West’, “which has got great advantages in terms of rail and roads nearby”.
The ICS dinner was well attended with guests attending from around Australia and New Zealand.
This is an edited version of a story which originally appeared in Rail Express sister publication, Lloyd’s List Australia. Read the original story here.