Beyond False Choice for Fremantle Port

27 July 2024

While Paul Murray’s politics are close to the opposite of mine, he occasionally gets things half right.

Today across two page in the West, he takes a swing at me, Allanah MacTiernan, and Twiggy Forrest. For the latter two, it was focused on hydrogen and here he’s right when he references Saul Griffith and says “using renewable energy to make hydrogen is not as cost-effective as using wind and solar on their own.”

Paul Murray is also right when he writes about Westport who’s “…entire rationale was built on a fallacy and that expert analysis showed Fremantle port would not reach its maximum capacity until 2055”.

He goes on to quote me, writing: “There are big question marks around the future of Westport and the demand and need for Westport is actually much further away than anybody thought.”

He’s right because the need for a new port has long been exaggerated. Take this graph, produced by Fremantle Port over ten years ago that projected container numbers. Growth is half of what they expected. In 2023/24, there were 856,529 TEUs through the Fremantle Port well under the 1.2 million projected.

As I have long argued, Westport and Roe 8 are false choices; there is a better, smarter, cheaper, less damaging third way that doesn’t force us into expensive and damaging solutions, whether it be building Roe 8 or moving the Fremantle Port to Kwinana.

Port infrastructure investments should instead be broken down into smaller, more sustainable changes, and we should start with moving cars off Victoria Quay. We also need increased container movements on rail, and we need to see a greater use of low-emissions, low-noise trucks outside peak hours to improve capacity.

The upside for the state government is that they save $10 billion and the upside for Fremantle is it keeps a working port so essential to its identity.

Beyond the False Choice for Fremantle Port | City of Fremantle Mayor’s Blog (wordpress.com)