Garrett and parrot fly in the face of protest
Peter Garrett has declared the orange-bellied parrot - the poster bird for green activists opposing development - to be an unlikely beneficiary of Victoria’s $1 billion channel deepening project.
While one of his Liberal predecessors, Ian Campbell, used the bird’s rare status to try to block a wind farm, Labor’s Environment Minister has found the parrot stands to be a winner from a project critics have slammed as environmentally dangerous.
Opponents last night signalled fresh legal action to try to block the project after Mr Garrett released his statement of reasons for approving the dredging of Port Phillip Bay, which would allow new, bigger, container ships to dock in Port Melbourne. He found the project could provide benefits to the parrot because “hydrodynamic changes” resulting from the dredging could lead to an increase in the saltmarsh habitat that supports the bird.
While the parrot utilised wetlands relevant to the project, Mr Garrett concluded the forecast turbidity from the dredging was not likely to occur at high concentrations and “the effects will be negligible”.
“The orange-bellied parrot does pop up a bit in some of these assessments but, in this instance, the assessment doesn’t find that the orange-bellied parrot would be threatened,” he told Melbourne radio.
But Jenny Warfe, president of the Blue Wedges Coalition, said Mr Garrett’s finding that the project would benefit the parrot had been reached “without any proof”. “Does it necessarily follow that (having extra saltmarsh) is going to be beneficial to the orange-bellied parrot?” she said. “Where’s the evidence of that? There isn’t any.”
Mr Garrett found the Australian grayling might be vulnerable to the dredging but any impact on the fish could be offset by the Port of Melbourne Corporation contributing $300,000 to assist its recovery. While he found the blue whale, humpback and southern right whale were known to be in the bay, they were unlikely to be in large numbers.
Based on the assessments made, Mr Garrett acknowledged the project was proceeding because the economic benefits outweighed any environmental difficulties.
Final federal approval is reliant on the corporation providing a revised and suitable environmental management plan.
After losing a Federal Court action to block the project, the coalition is considering fresh action challenging Mr Garrett’s finding that the Port of Melbourne Corporation was a “suitable person” to be granted project approval.
Ms Warfe said the coalition would seek to establish that the corporation had breached environmental guidelines because there had been a rockfall during the trial dredging process.
“All along we have been committed to stopping the project if we can because we believe it’s a white elephant economically and a dangerous project environmentally,” she said.