Albanese: “three lost years” on inland rail

But Infrastructure and Transport Minister Darren Chester says the project remains a core government priority that’s arriving at a critical stage, given next week’s budget and upcoming federal election, to make decisions that will see it progress.

Both senior MPs spoke to Fairfax Media about their stance on the inland rail with Mr Chester refusing to disclose any budget commitments and Mr Albanese saying any Labor policy would be revealed in due course.

But Mr Albanese said the Coalition government “haven’t done anything” to advance the inland rail during this current term while Labor had spent almost $600m upgrading the existing line and allocated $300m in the 2011 budget, to commence in 2013-14.

“This government hasn’t added a dollar since then; all they’ve done is conducted another review led by a former leader and National Party member (John Anderson) that didn’t advance the project,” he said.

“The farm sector is justifiably very critical of the fact that the Coalition simply hasn’t added to any funding and they haven’t been serous about this project.”

Mr Albanese said the ALP would “announce election policy when we announce it” but stressed the inland rail remained “an absolute priority” and any promises would be consistent with having already supported and advanced the inland rail project.

“It will also be consistent with our criticism that the government has wasted three years without advancing the project,” he said.

Mr Albanese said it was “extraordinary” the Coalition hadn’t brought forward new funding for the inland rail, given that historically, initial project funding was delivered and then added to in subsequent budgets.

“This government has not added a single dollar to the inland rail and that’s quite extraordinary and essentially the past three years are lost years where the project hasn’t been advanced at all,” he said.

But Mr Albanese said Labor had shown its credentials and we’re the only political party in Australia that had ever committed a dollar to the inland rail.

“We want to see it happen and would advance the project (but) not by making false promises and then not doing anything,” he said.

“I want to see it happen as soon as possible because it will take pressure off the coastal route, it will take pressure off the road network it will improve productivity and it will create jobs in regional Australia and it will transform Parkes in particular.”

But Mr Chester said the federal government had allocated $300m to the inland rail project since the 2013 election to conduct preliminary works and was committed to its advancement.

He said Mr Anderson’s report handed to government in September last year outlined recommendations on how to deliver the inland rail over the next decade.

That report has been considered by the government which is now looking at the best way to fund and deliver on the inland rail, in the 2016-17 budget, he said.

Mr Chester said the government had also approved the release of about $142m to support some of the project’s pre-construction work while the Australian Rail Track Corporation had started on the ground work to refine the rail corridor alignment.

He said other preliminary work was also underway with field studies on requirements for the project’s pre-construction phase.

“We’re talking about the requirement for between 600-700kms of new track so the first thing stakeholders are looking for from the government is a commitment to acquire some of the parts of the route that are not already in existence,” he said.

“There’s still plenty of work to be done but it’s a project that’s really had good support for the best part of 20 years and we’re getting to the critical stage now in terms of making some decisions that will see the project progress.

“I appreciate there’s a level of impatience in the community but it’s getting to the stage where final decisions need to be made.

“We’re at the pointy end of that process now and I understand people are looking anxiously towards the budget to see what the view of the commonwealth government’s going to be.

“I understand and respect the views of people throughout regional Australia and some of the peak groups that they’re looking for some definitive action from the government in the next term.

“I can’t comment on what may be in the budget - that’s for the Treasurer - but the bottom line is we’re moving through the inland rail process in an orderly way and it has strong support across the Coalition and in the community.”

Mr Chester said the most obvious roadblock to the inland rail project’s roll-out was money.

He said the $10b project would take the best part of a decade to construct and required timely funding commitments, to allow work to progress in an orderly manner.

“It’s not possible for me to comment any further in terms of any funding commitments in the budget but I’ve certainly had conversations with the Deputy Prime Minister and the Prime Minister and there’s a lot of support across the Coalition for us to continue to progress the project,” he said.

“I would not say it has been a headache - the National Party across the board recognises the value in the project.

“We think it will help to make our producers more globally competitive, providing that freight rail link between Melbourne and Brisbane with a transit time of less than 24 hours which cuts costs out of industry and will deliver benefits at the farm gate.

“It’s a project which creates jobs during the construction phase but also opens up opportunities in the regional communities along its route for further growth into the future.”

Mr Albanese also expressed concerns about privatising the ARTC saying it would be “a disaster for farmers” and set back the inland rail project.

He said the Hunter Valley rail network was a profitable section of the ARTC but it would suffer the same fate as other rail line privatisations, like in WA with the grain rail experience.

“When rail lines are privatised, the asset is bled for profit,” he said.

“The maintenance isn’t kept up and short term profitability is the priority of the private owners.

“(If the ARTC was privatised) the Hunter Valley section of the network would be maintained but the rest of the network would struggle to receive the maintenance and priority it deserves.

“We’ve had three lost years under the Coalition and any suggestion that the way to advance the inland rail project is to sell off parts of the existing rail freight network is of some concern.”