Morrison government abandons plan to build Antarctic runway near Davis research station
The Morrison government has turned its back on a plan to build a concrete runway in Antarctica, prompting criticism from one of its own backbenchers. LATEST >>
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The federal government has walked away from a commitment to build a concrete runway at Australia’s Davis research station in Antarctica, citing “higher projected costs” and “potential environmental impacts” as two of the key reasons for abandoning the project.
The 2700m runway would have been the first of its kind on the ice continent, providing greater access to the research station, which is currently only accessible via icebreaker or internal flights using small aircraft during the austral summer.
The plan attracted intense criticism from the Bob Brown Foundation, which said the project would have degraded the Antarctic environment.
In a statement on Thursday, Environment Minister Sussan Ley said the decision to abandon the runway followed an environmental and economic assessment.
“The government is now considering further investments in our scientific research and environmental programs in Antarctica that continue to create jobs and investment for Tasmania, the international gateway to East Antarctica,” she said.
“Over the last five years the government has thoroughly researched the runway option in a way that has greatly increased our understanding of this unique terrestrial and marine environment, which will help inform our future investment.
“It is now clear that higher projected costs, potential environmental impacts, and the complexity of a 20-year construction process in an extreme and sensitive environment, are such that we will now focus on alternative options for expanding our wider Antarctic Program capability.”
Other infrastructure that would have been built under the project included a wharf and an access road to the proposed aerodrome.
Tasmanian Liberal senator Eric Abetz was scathing of the decision to drop the plan.
“As it appears, this is a final decision – and a retrograde decision at that,” he said. “The task is to ensure that the funding predicated for the runway is made fully available for other Antarctic capabilities.”
“The overwhelming strategic and capability support the runway would have provided has been regrettably lost. So, we now need to invest in other strategic and capability support infrastructure to ensure the international community cannot doubt our commitment to Antarctica.”
Franklin Labor MHR Julie Collins said the government needed to guarantee that the decision didn’t result in any job losses in Tasmania.
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