|
July 10, 2005
By Jason Dowling The Age
Jenny Warfe, president of the Blue Wedge coalition, said Mr Thwaites'
seat of Albert Park would be targeted during the 2006 election campaign,
with residents urged to vote for the Greens or the Fishing Party, and to
put Labor and the Liberals last.
She said the Liberal Party's most marginal seat, Nepean, held by Martin
Dixon by only 114 votes, would also be targeted.
"There will be a lot of angst in the Mornington Peninsula, because that
is the area that is going to be most adversely affected by this," Ms
Warfe said.
The State Government is expected to announce soon that trial dredging of
the bay will begin in August.
Ms Warfe said the trial was an attempt to deceive Victorians and, in
fact, represented 10 per cent of the entire channel deepening project.
If approved, the $545 million deepening project that was announced in
2000 will allow bigger ships into the port of Melbourne by removing
millions of cubic metres of silt and sediment from the bay floor.
In April - after the biggest environmental effects study in Victoria's
history failed to explain key elements of the project - the Government
ordered a further study of the environmental impact.
A final decision on the channel proposal is not expected until after the
November 2006 state election.
A spokesman for Mr Thwaites said: "The Victorian Government is
undertaking a detailed environmental effects assessment to ensure all
environmental concerns are addressed prior to this project proceeding."
Ms Warfe said the Greens could have considerable influence in the next
parliament, and the channel proposal was not one they supported.
After last week's release of proposed new electoral boundaries for the
upper house in Victoria, some election analysts have tipped the Greens
could hold the balance of power after the next election.
The Greens would need the support of the Liberal Party (if it was still
the Opposition) to block the bay dredging proposal. The Liberals have so
far backed channel deepening.
Ms Warfe said it did not mean the Liberals would not want to amend the
policy, and this might be possible with the support of the Greens.
The Liberals' environment spokesman, Phil Honeywood, asked if his party
would work with Greens to make changes to the channel plan, said:
"Absolutely."
Mr Honeywood said: "The beauty of any system where there is a balance of
power is you can negotiate outcomes. If we are not happy, we could work
with minor parties for amendments."
The co-convener of the Victorian Greens, Gurm Sekhon, said yesterday
that the channel project would cost both major parties votes.
"It will be an election issue for all seats," he said.
Blue Wedge (http://www.bluewedges.org),
which has said it will ratchet up pressure on the State Government right
up to election, will rally on the Sorrento foreshore today as part of
the campaign against deepening the channel. |
 |
|
