{"id":2124,"date":"2014-11-03T21:20:37","date_gmt":"2014-11-03T21:20:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=2124"},"modified":"2016-09-08T18:04:47","modified_gmt":"2016-09-08T18:04:47","slug":"project-affecting-all-of-victoria-has-to-be-part-of-election-debate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/project-affecting-all-of-victoria-has-to-be-part-of-election-debate\/","title":{"rendered":"Project affecting all of Victoria has to be part of election debate"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Peter van Duyn<\/a>, Victoria University<\/em> and Hermione Parsons<\/a>, Victoria University<\/em><\/p>\n

Victoria\u2019s election debate about infrastructure is shaping up around large projects such as the East West Link<\/a> and Airport Rail Link<\/a>. But another infrastructure project could also be on the radar: the choice of location for Victoria\u2019s next container port.<\/p>\n

The Coalition government favours Western Port<\/a>. The Labor opposition favours the western part of Port Phillip Bay<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The revival of Sir Henry Bolte\u2019s vision for developing the Port of Hastings<\/a>, situated in Western Port, follows generations of politicians and successive Victorian governments maintaining the dream partly in response to the ongoing pressure to \u201cdo something\u201d for regional Victoria (in particular Gippsland). Major infrastructure is tangible evidence of action that offers a proud legacy to all involved in its planning, development and implementation.<\/p>\n

Planning for an alternative to the Port of Melbourne has gained momentum in recent years. This is due to the substantial growth in the size<\/a> of international container vessels \u2013 between 1988 and 2014, vessels have grown from 4000 to 18,000 containers \u2013 and the decision by Maersk Line to build a fleet of mega-ships, which require a deep-water port.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Port of Hastings: a pre-mortem<\/h2>\n

With this in mind, the Institute for Supply Chain and Logistics has prepared a pre-mortem analysis<\/a> of the Port of Hastings Development Project. This is an attempt to inform the debate and to help governments make effective decisions in relation to the project\u2019s design, development and management over the coming decades.<\/p>\n

Using the pre-mortem technique<\/a>, the issue is analysed from the imagined position of it already having failed. Realistic possibilities are then identified to explain why this may have happened. The procedure offers three very clear advantages in project analysis:<\/p>\n