Melbourne, Australia, could see the introduction of a huge L-shaped pier in the southwest, making it the city's second operational port.
Labor’s Bay West proposal would have to be built well offshore so that containers can be unloaded from ships. Once unloaded, the containers could then be transferred onto trains via an ‘island terminal’.
However, the coalition government said Labor had not understood that the plan would entail susbstantial dredging of the Bay.
In spite of this, shadow treasurer Tim Pallas said Labor would establish Infrastructure Victoria so that the state’s large priority projects can be independently planned, including Bay West.
“Labour will determine the viability of Bay West as the location for Victoria's future container port as we believe it could be a nationally significant investment for the Geelong region,” Mr Pallas told AAP on Wednesday.
Mr Pallas added: “Bay West has a number of advantages over Hastings, including availability of land, access to major arterial roads, standard gauge national freight network [and] potentially unlimited berth capacity.”
Labour said Bay West could potentially take 10 million TEU ships, compared to nine million TEU at Hastings, located 72km southeast of Melbourne.
