Kennett stalls on Coode Island move

By Alex Cooper

MELBOURNE -- Despite promises prior to last year's state election, it appears that the Kennett government may be backing away from funding the relocation of the Coode Island chemical storage facility to Point Wilson on the western side of Port Phillip Bay, well away from residential areas.

The Hazardous Materials Action Group (HAZMAG) has warned that the Coode Island facility may not be shifted until the year 2000, but this has been denied by a spokesperson for industry services minister Roger Pescott.

The shift to Point Wilson was one of several recommendations made by the Coode Island Review Panel, set up after the fire of August 1991. These were agreed to by the former Kirner government.

However, as Paul Adams of HAZMAG told Green Left Weekly, many of the things which were supposed to have been done by the end of 1992 have not been.

For example, an authority was supposed to have been set up to oversee the relocation, but this has not happened. The Australian Chemical Industry Council says it is waiting for promised financial assistance from the government.

Adams said he finds it offensive that chemical companies have insisted that the government should give them $150 million to help with the move when they have saved enormous amounts in transport costs over the last three decades by storing their dangerous chemicals right next to the city centre. “No other city in the world would allow dangerous materials so close to built-up areas”, Adams said.

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