The Minister for Roads, Maritime and Freight has rejected installing shore to ship power at White Bay Cruise Terminal, claiming it costs too much.
Commenting on the Government’s report, Mr Parker said:
“Labor proposed and approved this entirely unsuitable cruise ship terminal, despite opposition from the cruise ship industry, residents, and Leichhardt and City of Sydney Councils.
The government is now seeking to wash its hands of any responsibility for protecting the health of the community.
With this report the government has given the cruise ship industry a licence to pollute Sydney’s air at will.
Incredibly, the government is claiming clean air is ‘not financially feasible’.
It’s simply naïve of the government to imagine that the multi-billion dollar cruise ship industry will voluntarily regulate emissions without legal protections in place to stop them endangering the health of local people.
The toxic fumes emitted by cruise ships can cause a range of illnesses, including eye disorders, lung and cardiovascular diseases and cancer.
Government advisors openly admit they are unable to accurately measure dangerous ‘ultrafine’ particles, which have the potential to seriously harm human health.
When White Bay was first used for freight shipping in the 1970s, residents coexisted with the port. But the building of the terminal in 2013 brought in vessels of unprecedented heights, with exhaust funnels at street level imposing intolerable noise and air pollution on local people.
It’s unbelievable that ships are still allowed to burn fuel in Sydney Harbour which has up to 35 times higher levels of sulphur than the fuel they are required to use in Europe and 3,500 times the level required by Australian diesel cars.
Residents of White Bay – and people who live around Sydney Harbour – want real solutions that require cruise ships to use cleaner electric power, not dirty diesel fuel. Without this, Sydney is in danger of becoming the dumping ground for the oldest, dirtiest and most polluting cruise ships in the world.
It is absolutely unacceptable that the government won't act to install shore to ship power and stop the poisonous emissions from cruise ships at White Bay, when many ports around the world are now deploying this critical solution.”
Sign the petition here: www.jamieparker.org/_white_bay
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The costs of doing nothing far outway investment in solutions.
The Health Cost Benefits are greater when intervention strategies are implemented to reduce the known costs related to air pollution morbidities and mortalities.
Choose life.
Influence Government to take action.