Australian Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek has rejected the Victorian government’s plans to build an offshore wind terminal at the Port of Hastings (pictured).
Plibersek blocked the proposal to build a plant to assemble wind turbines for offshore wind farms due to the impact on Western Port Ramsar wetlands.
The plans included dredging up to 92 hectares (227 acres) of the wetlands and reclaiming 29 hectares of seabed.
The environment minister wrote in her rejection of the proposals that “large areas of the [wetland] will be destroyed or substantially modified as a result of direct impacts of the proposed action”.
The Victorian government has set aside AUS$27m in its last budget to progress the terminal, which it said would support the delivery of up to 1GW of offshore wind per year, serving multiple projects.
Plibersek said the plan was likely to cause the irreversible damage to the habitat of waterbirds and migratory birds and marine invertebrates and fish which could not be mitigated or offset.