WITH relations between NSW Farmers, the federal government and the Australian Rail Track Corporation plumbing new lows, the farmers association this week warned unless authorities get serious about engaging with the community, the National Party will feel the pain of a ballot-box revolt.
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NSW Farmers insists that from day one it has supported the Inland Rail project, saying the desperately needed infrastructure has been 120 years in the making.
But it is the implementation of the scheme that is sticking in the craw of farmers and landholders.
NSW Farmer policy director Robert Hardie yesterday reacted angrily to a doorstop interview given by Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack in Parkes on Monday, flanked by Parkes Mayor Ken Keith, Forbes Mayor Phyllis Miller and ARTC construction manager Colin Forde.
Mr McCormack granted the interview as 14,000 tonnes of Australian steel was delivered to further advance the $9.2 billion project, which he described as progressing at a "cracking pace".
It is a pace Mr Hardie believes is unsustainable and reckless, with technical fundamentals and community support sorely lacking.
Asked by a journalist about NSW Farmers' recommendation its members no longer engage with the ARTC, Mr McCormack said: "sure, there have been some issues along the way. We’ve worked through those."
Yet Mr Hardie said ARTC had kept no records of community engagement and indications of wide-ranging support for the project had probably been garnered at informal gatherings at which participants had little or no idea their thoughts would become part of the government's case for progressing the project.
"They claim they have met with 90 per cent of landholders along the Narromine to Narrabri section, but they can't say who.
"Mr McCormack is responsible for this mad rush and he hasn't brought the community along."
NSW Farmers still insists on an inquiry into the decision-making processes for Inland Rail to date.
