Toora-li-additty 2

As previously noted, the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) recently refused a housing development at Toora, on the South Gippsland coast, due to the ‘probability’ of flooding arising from climate-change induced sea-level rise.

A ‘climate change adaptation specialist’, Dr Peter Fisher, in an opinion piece last week observed with regard to the Toora decision:

Curiously, [VCAT] did not invoke a similar precautionary approach when it refused to overturn planning approval for a gas plant upgrade near Marlo. The proposed residential development at Toora was apparently more risky than the processing and storage of liquid hydrocarbons and monoethylene glycol on a low dune next to a lagoon on a flood plain with only frontal dunes between the plant and the ocean.

Curious indeed; however, such inconsistency could be illumined by the fact that one proposal was underpinned by a significant commercial lobby, whereas the other clearly was not.