The progression of the Inland Rail has again hit some rough track, as NSW Farmers vents its frustration with the ARTC’s lack of transparency on issues important to its farmer members.
The two groups will meet tomorrow to discuss these concerns and NSW Farmers says if it doesn’t get a transparent explanation of ARTC’s decisions, then the association would reconsider its engagement with the company.
NSW Farmers policy director for cropping and horticulture, Robert Hardie, said the two key questions that remained were:
- What is the justification for selecting a greenfield development over upgrading the existing rail corridor; and
- Where is the business case which supports the selection of a greenfield over a brownfield development?
In addition, the association had sought answers about the impact on landholders by the construction of a brand new rail corridor over upgrading the existing Coonamble corridor.
This would help explain to farmers at least why their farms were being sacrificed, he said.
In May, the association had requested a detailed analysis of an alternate route, but this had not yet been provided.
“We are not asking super technical questions… which is, can you justify why this rail needs to go where you say it needs to go?”
On the association’s own estimates, the difference in time along the existing brownfield route through Coonamble was only about five minutes extra between Melbourne and Brisbane compared the proposed greenfield route.
“... if the government is willing to justify that four or five minutes, then that’s the argument it should be running,” Mr Hardie said, adding the purpose of the project should be to help regional communities, rather than be driven by expediency.
The fact there had been three federal ministers for transport, infrastructure and regional development in the past three months had not helped.
He said the association wanted to continue to work with government, but “we don’t think the government are asking the right questions” and therefore also not holding the $10 billion project to the level of scrutiny it deserved.
A spokesperson from the ARTC said the company valued the strong advocacy of NSW Farmers on Inland Rail.
“We want to continue to build on our recent constructive discussions and successful collaboration on the land access agreement forms,” they said.
“We believe the information to be provided (on Friday) will satisfy the NSW Farmers and form the basis for ongoing productive collaboration.”
