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Legal Update.

Sadly the federal court action result, announced Friday 16thMay, was not in our favor. At the time of writing, we have not yet decided whether there are adequate grounds to appeal the decision, and we would only contemplate this if we were assured a high chance of success. The aim of the court action was to have the Pilot Plant included as part of the EES process. If we had achieved that result, any work at the site would have been delayed at least 6 months, thus giving us more time to rally Melbourne people to vocally oppose the project and thus force a change in Government policy. Our legal advice was that we had an even chance of success, however as our attempt was unsuccessful, work on the pilot plant will most likely start immediately.

The one positive from the court case was that the judge confirmed that Victoria’s government does NOT have federal government approval to proceed with the pilot plant; thus correcting inaccurate claims from state government. Unfortunately however, it was deemed that state government does not require federal approval. From a “due diligence” angle, it is certainly ludicrous that such work can begin without any environmental assessment or Cultural Heritage Management Plan. Such feelings are shared by at least one of the environmental consultants that we met with at the recent desalination consultant meetings.

Where to now?

The legal avenue was never going to stop the project as a whole; that can only be achieved by forcing Government’ due diligence in choosing the best solution for Victoria, based on evidence. That can only be achieved through community anger. The community assembly at the site is well underway, and so far has been a great success in achieving media coverage, and to display our resolve to stop this. The next major step is a large Melbourne event. On July 5 we are joining a huge climate change rally, culminating in forming a huge sign “Climate Emergency”. We aim to have desalination a major part of that, as this desalination project is the most immediate threat to worsening climate change that we have an opportunity to stop. We need a huge contingent to travel to Melbourne on this day; please register your interest with Chris (0419556381).

The one person who can stop this project is you! Don’t leave it to others; success de-pends on a diverse, committed and active group.
Please see www.yourwateryoursay.org or phone Chris (0419556381) or Andrea (0400065253).
Anyone interested in joining the Melbourne Chapter of YWYS can contact Mike on 0417374439.
Volunteers to assist with supporting the community assembly please drop in to it, or call Bruce on 0419354815.