Sydney
,
New South Wales
Message
The Maritime Union of Australia strongly objects to the proposed Port Botany Quayline Equalisation Project (SSI 79878464).
The Port Botany Quayline extension will be highly disruptive to the port and its workforce, yet result in no benefit to the Australian public. This enormously expensive project ($416 million) will only benefit DP World, a stevedoring company owned by the government of Dubai and its royal family, and international shipping companies, who want to cut their costs by increasing the size of the ships they bring to Australia.
Approximately 1,500 people who are members of the Maritime Union of Australia work in the area immediately adjacent to the project area and within the Port Lease Area. This includes the workforce of DP World, Hutchison, Patrick, the Bulk Liquid terminals, the Port Authority of NSW, Boluda Towage, Svitzer towage, Ausport lines, DP World Logistics and other container yards. These workers spend most of their waking hours adjacent to this project area and will be heavily impacted by the noise, dust, traffic increase, air pollution and disruption. They would also be on the front lines and immediately impacted by any catastrophic incident arising from moving the wharf and pipelines for highly hazardous flammable gases and liquids in the BLB area.
Despite these immediate impacts, neither the MUA nor the thousands of people working in the immediate area of the project have been listed as stakeholders in the project documents, or included in consultation processes.
The NSW government’s Freight Transport Advisory Council has also not been consulted.
Recreational fishing groups have not been consulted. Although recreational fishing is not allowed in the new hard standing area being filled in, the area around the proposed new bulk liquids berth at Molineaux Point is a very busy area for recreational fishing. The boat launch just to the east of the lease area is also very popular and heavily used by the public. Users of this facility must also be consulted.
Please see further details on these points in the attached submission.
Attachments