Inception Report: Before that change to the POMC the Victorian Channels Authority - the original proponent of the deepening proposal - issued a "Final Inception Report", on its Web site at www.vicchannels.vic.gov.au and said to be the first of four interim reports planned to inform the public about the progress of the EES process. 

Spoil Disposal: The Inception Report gives some useful details about the proposal, although in many matters it is fairly general or vague, as the information is admitted to be not yet available. Mention is made of possibly using some of the spoil material, depending on its suitability, which is admitted is yet not adequately known, for purposes for which such material has been used in other countries, such as: 

• beach renourishment,
• renourishment of wetland areas,
• "creating" farming land,
• "creating" recreational land, and
• "creating" natural (sic) reserve areas.

The Temptation to Advocate Artificial Islands: The deepening would remove a total volume of spoil of 30 gigalitres (1GL = 1 million cubic metres). To visualize that, think of Melbourne’s half-empty Thompson Dam, whose total capacity is 500 GL by comparison. Consider the area spoil would cover if it were deposited in the Bay to form a low island or islands, as has been suggested by a VCA consultant at one of their public information sessions, and is clearly opposed by PPCC Inc. If all the spoil formed one or more 6 m high artificial islands in the Bay’s deepest parts, which are some 24 m deep, a square kilometre of artificial land surface would result. However, half of the Bay’s 26,000 GL of seawater covers areas shallower than 8 m, so there would be at least 2 square kilometres of artificial surface there, and proportionately more in shallower waters. PPCC Inc. has written to the Minister for Sustainability and Environment asking the Government to rule out the creation of artificial islands in Port Phillip. It has drawn his attention to the argument against them in PPCC Inc. Policy Statement No. 11. 

Political Monitoring: Under this heading a section of the Inception Report read, "A specific program will need to be developed for local Councillors (including the Mayors and relevant ward councillors), local members of Parliament and key government ministers to ensure that they are kept informed of the progress of the project, key and emerging issues and proposed VCA responses. The aim of this program will be to maintain political support and confidence in the project. The VCA will have the responsibility for this task." 

The tone of that section of a report by a Government instrumentality is rather disturbing, as PPCC Inc. would have expected the VCA to properly confine its activities in this context to objective statements and views about the environmental effects of the proposal and to demonstrate a readiness to search for and disclose even adverse aspects, which the Government and the public should know about, if a balanced and informed decision is to be made on the future of the proposal. Instead the report is overtly optimistic (without showing any justification for that) and even seems to be recommending that public resources be spent in "maintaining political support and confidence in the project". Surely whether such support and confidence continues should be decided on the basis of a properly impartial and disinterested investigation, and not an effort to justify a predetermined outcome.