Let’s get on track with port rail line

PORT of Hastings Corporation chief executive Ralph Kenyon said this week that there was no certainty about the alignment of a proposed freight railway corridor through the City of Casey and the Shire of Cardinia.
Mr Kenyon said that thinking on the alignment was in the early stages and the corporation was working through options because it was necessary to develop planning certainties for transport needs in the 2025 to 2035 time slot.
This may be so, but what about uncertainty in the lives of hundreds of families that this proposal has already caused?
What we need to do quickly is get some certainty back into the lives of people upset by this matter.
Not even a whisper was heard about the plan until the Port of Hastings Land Use and Transport Strategy came into the public arena late last year.
Once the idea comes out in an official document, albeit a draft, it can be considered as almost in concrete and is usually difficult to change.
Probably I am as much to blame as anyone for the situation that allowed the corporation to spring this on the public because I am supposed to know about these things.
Corporation documents say in several places that the body worked with interest groups while formulating the strategy but these groups had no interest in the wellbeing of property owners and families on which their ideas would impact.
Those standing to suffer most were left out of the loop until it was possibly too late, certainly until it suited the corporation.
So many draft strategies are written based on exactly what the government wants and Mr Kenyon said during the Cranbourne public meeting on Wednesday 17 January that the ClydeCardinia rail route was the way the corporation wanted to go.
Powerful people will already have backed his line of thinking.
At least one document foreshadows the idea of the Clyde rail link but we missed it.
I am convinced that no effort was made to sound out the feelings of ordinary people who now find themselves in a real quandary.
And why did Cardinia and Casey council officers who must have known about this keep it quiet?
We have to accept there is a need for a second port somewhere in southern Victoria and we have learned to live with the Port of Hastings, although some people consider that it will be detrimental to the bay.
The port cannot be blamed entirely for the destruction of Western Port Bay’s environment.
That began 130 years ago; the day the first sod was turned to drain the Kooweerup Swamp.
Therefore the process of needing to provide for more and more people places us in conflict with our natural environment.
The port needs transport lanes but we have them in place along the Western Port Highway and the DandenongGippsland railway line.
They were put there many years ago to service our transport needs.
Surely the government has the expertise to exploit those easements without ripping through rural communities that never in their wildest dreams expected to get a railway line for Christmas.
Mr Kenyon is virtually a oneman band.
The word corporation would lead many people to believe that the Port of Hastings Corporation was a big and powerful organisation but it has a chairman, two directors, a chief executive, receptionist, plus a couple of casual helpers.
Don’t get me wrong; it’s got plenty of clout but not so big that concerted community action can’t pull it back on the right track.
Maybe the values of economics and logistics of this project could provide a sound argument for this Clyde rail link.
But how much value do we place on community building and the personal stability of our residents?
The government, through its socalled Port of Hastings Corporation, has no right to treat people in such a cavalier manner.
People in this country are entitled to and demand better.
Mr Kenyon said the idea had set developers on the lookout to capitalise on possible land value increases because of the proposal.
This is in direct contrast to claims that an overlay to be placed on properties in the new corridor would slash property values.
If Mr Kenyon is right then there is no reason why the government can’t buy this land at a premium rate rather than have it devalued with overlays to set the scene for cheap buy ups later on.