Greg Hunt (Flinders, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Climate Action, Environment and Heritage) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is a pleasure to appear before you this evening. There is, I want to make it absolutely clear, a grievance which I bring to this chamber on behalf of my electorate of Flinders. The future of Point Nepean, on the eastern side of the Mornington Peninsula at the bottom end of Port Phillip, was settled three years ago. It was settled because there had been over $50 million in Commonwealth grants and it had been declared an area of National Heritage status; at the time, it was in the first 30 on the list.

Beyond that, and still more importantly, it was agreed through the work of the Point Nepean Community Trust—a long, arduous and consultative planning process—that this was to be the site of the National Centre for Coasts and Climate. It was to be the site of a great research facility on a boutique scale that would be one of the jewels not just of the Mornington Peninsula, Port Phillip or Melbourne but of Victoria and Australia with regard to research and the environment.

The things allocated were as follows: firstly, 110 student places; secondly, $7 million for the University of Melbourne to have a fit-out done on its behalf by the Point Nepean Community Trust; thirdly, $2 million of trailing rent over three years, including an escalator to be provided by the Commonwealth; fourthly, a much broader package of over $50 million allocated by the Commonwealth through different sources; and, fifthly, the agreement that, on handing over to the state of Victoria, the state would produce a payment of $10 million to be held in escrow purely for the purposes of the quarantine station area.

That is what was agreed upon by the peninsula, by the community and by all of those involved. It was a vision of the peninsula as a centre for environmental research. It was a vision of the magnificent quarantine station area at Point Nepean being open to the public but with an anchor tenant which would be there for the next 50, 70 or 100 years. It was a vision based around marine research and in the tradition of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and the Bodega Bay marine institute. These are the global models upon which the Point Nepean vision was established. There was unity, commitment and conviction within the community, an operating trust under the chairmanship of Simon McKeon and a system which should not in any way have been subject to the threat of commercial exploitation in place of this vision.

Sadly—and this is where I come to the grievance—since the 2007 election this vision has been allowed to slide. I had not thought that was possible. We had established the trust with sufficient money, we had signed a heads of agreement with Melbourne University and we had made sure that the trust had a about 18 months to operate and during which to complete the works on the ground at Point Nepean to ensure that the state of Victoria was handed a functioning National Centre for Coasts and Climate.

This has been a personal passion of mine for many years. As I said, there was money, there was an operating body, there was a committed university, there were capital works and there was an unparalleled site. It should be for the benefit of students, the Mornington Peninsula community and marine research. It should not be turned into a hotel which will inevitably fail as we saw nearby with the Delgany Hotels complex.

The facts are these: on coming to government the Rudd government, through Minister Garrett, took instructions from the state of Victoria and put on hold almost all works relating to the completion of the National Centre for Coasts and Climate. Why? Because the state had a very different vision. As we saw recently in the Southern Peninsula News, that vision was to establish a large, commercial luxury hotel. This was in breach of every promise that the state had made during 2003, 2004 and 2005. This was in breach of the very campaign that the state waged during that time. The state said there must be no commercial exploitation of this place—that this sanctuary, this special point, should be a place for all Victorians for all time. So that sacred pledge was sacrificed with an instruction from the state of Victoria, through Parks Victoria and the office of the state environment minister Gavin Jennings, to Mr Garrett that the Commonwealth should wind back the works and hold the project in abeyance. The ground works were completed, but the building work which would have allowed the early transition to a National Centre for Coasts and Climate was stopped dead in its tracks. That was unacceptable, inappropriate and simply wrong.

After the transition from the Commonwealth to the state at the end of June last year, we saw something very different. We saw the state progressively wind back two visions. The first was the vision for a respite centre for kids with terminal conditions and their families. It is extraordinary that a private benefactor who had offered $10 million and had spent $1 million on putting forward a vision for a respite centre for kids with terminal conditions and gross disabilities has been systematically thwarted by the Victorian government. What higher purpose and use could there be for such a magnificent area? I find it inconceivable and simply unforgivable that this has been thwarted. The benefactor still wishes to make that money available but it is impossible. Other than housing some administrators and a small heritage area which had long been in place, the buildings of the quarantine station remain empty.

The second element is this: the state immediately pocketed the $7 million which had been allocated to the University of Melbourne. That money which had been set aside for marine education, for research into climate change, for research into the magnificent heritage of Point Nepean—the tidal influence, the marine environment, the ecology of Port Phillip—was gone. That money has gone into the general budget of Parks Victoria. Again, that is a breach of the terms and intention of the handover from the Commonwealth to the state. I have long supported the handover, so long as the buildings will be used for marine education. So I find it extraordinary that that $7 million was taken. Secondly, we saw Minister Garrett take out of this year’s budget the $2 million of trailing rents for seven years. These are two significant breaches of faith. Parks Victoria says that, under those conditions, Melbourne university is not engaging in discussions. Having spoken with the Vice-Chancellor of Melbourne university I can say to the House that Melbourne university remains committed and would love to proceed with the project. But, without the $7 million that was always set aside as the basis for the deal, they cannot afford it. Without the $2 million of trailing rents they cannot afford it.

What we see in its place is a vision, writ large on the front of the Southern Peninsula News, of a luxury hotel. Two things will occur. Firstly, if that luxury hotel does get up, it will be a monumental breach of faith with everything that the community campaigned for over the last seven years. Secondly, if the hotel is established then, as with nearby Delgany—another classic heritage building which was used for a hotel—because of the seasonal nature of Portsea it will inevitably fail. And when it fails these buildings at Point Nepean will be privatised. That is inevitable. The plan as it currently stands is a breach of faith. There is a resolution, a way forward, and that is to return the $7 million to the beneficial use of Melbourne university for the fit-out of the National Centre for Coasts and Climate, to keep faith with that vision and to ensure that in 50, 70, 100 years from now this is a centre of research not a commercial precinct.