Botany Bay and Catchment Alliance

Timing is all. Yesterday while Kevin Rudd was announcing his new cabinet, the Premier of NSW took the opportunity to ‘advise’ NSW taxpayers that the expansion of Port Botany would be costing them $1 billion not the $500 million announced 6 months earlier, or the $240million 3 years earlier. If taxpayers get out of this one at 10 times the original estimate they can probably count themselves lucky. Luck is what the government is counting on to attract a third stevedore as well. Yesterday’s announcement of the award of the tender to Baulderstone Hornibrook and Jan de Nul also gave the government the opportunity to slip in another piece of ‘advice’. This expansion apparently will double the current capacity of the port. Transport carriers, in submissions to IPART, have argued that the Port is operating well below capacity; both stevedores at the Commission of Inquiry said that on the current footprint they could move in excess of 4 million containers. Even at the approved capacity levels of 1.3 million for each terminal, that brings us to an overall capacity around 5.2 million.

The Environmental Impact Statement for the Port was based on a capacity of 3.2million. The Minister’s approval was based on 3.2 million so why now talk of 5 million plus when under the NSW Ports Growth Plan Newcastle becomes the next container port after Port Botany reaches 3.2 million.

Click to see: Map of Dredging area and other developments in Botany Bay.pdf

Read Media Releases of 31/5/07 where the Port costs $500 million31/5/07 Port announcement and 29/11/07 where it now costs $1 billion and capacity has increased from 3.2million to 5.2 million containers. Expansion 29/11/07

Don’t expect any analysis of this project from the Sydney(CBD) Morning Herald. Below is what appeared in The Age: Misleading quotes from Iemma commenting on the needs of farmers even though his Transport Minister is on record as saying that Federal money should be spent in Sydney in preference to building the Inland Rail through Parkes and other Regional Centres.

Baulderstone JV wins $1b port contract THE AGE November 29, 2007 - 6:04PM

A company associated with some of Australia’s most controversial construction works has been awarded the $1 billion contract to expand Sydney’s Port Botany.

Baulderstone Hornibrook, which had charge of projects including the Sydney Cross City Tunnel, Sydney’s M5 East Motorway and the Sydney Airport third runway, formed a joint venture with Belgian company Jan de Nul to win the Port Botany contact.

Jan De Nul lists dredging and land reclamation among its specialised operations.

NSW Ports Minister Joe Tripodi said the government would begin an international tender process next year for the stevedore to operate the new facilities.

Baulderstone Hornibrook’s involvement in the project was called into question by the NSW Greens, who have long opposed the expansion of Port Botany on the grounds of its impact on the environment and local community.

Greens spokeswoman Lee Rhiannon said the construction giant had a chequered history, and that its successful tender had compounded the problems associated with the project.

“There are compensation claims against the government for unanticipated traffic on the M5 East Motorway, breaches of the M5 East tunnel air quality standards, problems with the construction of the seawall of Sydney Airport’s third runway and the debacle of the Cross City Tunnel,” she said.

Ms Rhiannon said the company also had twice been charged with failing to operate a safe workplace, after one construction worker died at the company’s Southbank site in Melbourne and another during the construction of the Cross City Tunnel.

“The appointment of Baulderstone Hornibrook is just one more poor decision by the Iemma government in pursuit of this ugly project,” she said.

Announcing the winning tenderer on Thursday, Mr Iemma said the 60 hectare expansion would double the port’s capacity, deliver 9,000 new jobs and boost the state’s economy by $16 billion over the next 20 years.

“This is one of the most vital infrastructure projects for the state,” Mr Iemma said.

He said trade through Port Botany was worth more than $40 billion last year, with the port currently handling one third of Australia’s container traffic.

“This trade is anticipated to grow over the next 20 years by some seven per cent a year, so it is essential that we have that infrastructure to be able to meet this growth,” he said.

Mr Iemma said NSW businesses and farmers would benefit from the expansion, with the first of five berths expected to be completed by 2012.

“It will mean NSW businesses will be able to get their goods into export markets like China and India, quicker, more efficiently and less costly … it means that they can compete against companies in China and India,” he said.

“For our farmers doing it tough in the worst drought in 100 years, the expansion here will mean that they will be able to get their produce into their export markets, earning vital dollars … quicker and more efficiently.”

Work begins on Port Botany’s expansion next year.

This entry was posted on Friday, November 30th, 2007 at 1736 and is filed under Port Botany Expansion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.