In our previous post we shared Save Westernport’s submission on the updated EES Scoping Requirements for next year’s Environment Effects Statement (EES) that will assess the proposed Victorian Renewable Energy Terminal in Westernport Bay. 

When we wrote our submission we found some concerning omissions in the terms of reference that will guide the project’s EES environmental assessment in 2026.

Save Westernport and fellow environmental organisations, Victoria National Parks Association, Environment Victoria, the WP Biosphere and Phillip Island Conservation Society (PICS) have written a joint letter outlining our concerns to the Victorian Ministers for Planning, the Environment, Energy, and Ports. 

Read our joint letter to the Ministers here

The letter communicates our disappointment and alarm at finding none of the following considerations in preparations for the proposal’s EES assessment to date:

  • Victoria’s 2020 Marine and Coastal Act (MACA) was designed to guide exactly how projects in the state’s marine environments should be assessed, yet the Department of Transport and Planning (DTP) failed to reference the Marine and Coastal Act in its updated guidelines for the EES.

The Act states: “the structure and function of marine and coastal ecosystems are fundamental to the current and future use and enjoyment of the marine and coastal environment, the resources, goods and benefits it provides.”

It calls for sustainable ecosystem-based management, and requires planners and decision makers to consider: 

  • ecosystem connections 
  • scientific and indigenous cultural knowledge
  • the cumulative impacts of many decisions  ecosystems
  • the climate resilience of the ecosystems over time.

We hope the Ministers will take our concerns seriously and ensure that the Scoping Requirements that will guide the EES comply with the MACAct, and a whole-of-ecosystem approach to this project and its impacts on the Bay.

The Port of Hastings Corporation’s plans to build Victoria’s Renewable Energy Terminal (V-RET) continue to move forward, and the proposal’s environmental assessment is due to begin next year. While we support the Victorian government’s commitment to renewable energy and offshore windfarms in Bass Strait, we’ll be making sure that government decisionmakers know that our community is watching closely, and we expect this project’s environmental assessment to be held to the highest standard. 

We have not forgotten that the Port of Hastings’ original project design was rejected by former federal environment minister Tanya Plibersek, who found it had ‘a number of unacceptable environmental impacts on Westernport’s Ramsar wetlands’. 

Read Minister Plibersek’s decision here 

The Port of Hastings Corporation says they have ‘redesigned the project’ to minimise its impacts, and we’ll know more when their EES reports are released in mid-late 2026. 

As the project applicants and proponents, the Port of Hastings’ main priority is to attract new commercial development to the port, and the Victorian govt has charged them with getting this project approved.

In general, the proponents of major developments like this are renowned for downplaying or altogether dismissing potential environmental impacts and other valid concerns.

 

Beginning at 0:33:25 you can hear some of our concerns discussed in an interview on 3CR’s ‘City Limits’ in October ’25.

 

French Island is the location for the Port of Hastings Corporation’s next community information session about the proposed VRET terminal in Westernport Bay.
Residents and visitors to the Island will be greatly affected if the project is approved. 

When: Saturday, 15 November 2025 (12 pm – 2 pm)  

French Island Community Hall, 221 Tankerton Road.  https://maps.app.goo.gl/wwokrgrJh5YDUzbf9?g_st=ipc

 

Finally, you can help Save Westernport meet the costs of ensuring meaningful community participation in this project’s EES environmental assessment in 2026, by making a donation here.

We’ll need to provide our own legal counsel and expert technical & environmental witnesses to represent Save Westernport and give evidence at the EES hearing to refute any questionable claims in the proponent’s EES reports.

Please consider making a donation here


You can also support Save Westernport by becoming a member, or renewing your membership.
Click on ‘Become A Member’ on our homepage here

 

With thanks 

The Save Westernport Steering Committee