Adam Bandt (Melbourne, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

Right now, airports across the country are dealing with enormous backlogs of passengers from hundreds of domestic and international flights cancelled because of the volcanic ash cloud. Qantas, Virgin Blue and Tiger have cancelled various flights across Bass Strait and into and out of Melbourne, Canberra and Sydney as well as a number of other airports. If ever there was another reason for high-speed rail, it is the current state of air chaos.

If we had high-speed rail between our big cities at the moment, the trains would be packed with happy travellers getting from Sydney to Melbourne and Sydney to Brisbane in three or four hours. Travel between my electorate and Canberra on a high-speed rail network would take about two hours. When you add travel time to and from the airports for the equivalent journey by air, two hours is not an inconvenient time. When you consider that the journey could be completed with comfortable seats, phone and internet access and a carbon footprint a mere fraction of the air equivalent, its benefits are compelling.

The constituents in my electorate understand the benefits of this key nation-building infrastructure product. My office has been bombarded with correspondence calling for high-speed rail—three hours from Melbourne to Sydney and four hours from Canberra to Newcastle. A high-speed rail link on Australia's east coast, through Canberra, would provide fast, reliable and sustainable transport for 75 per cent of our population.

High-speed rail links, with trains travelling at speeds up to 500 kilometres per hour, and more generally at 250 to 350 kilometres per hour, are already widespread in other parts of the world. Last year, Spain budgeted $50 billion to extend its network. Meanwhile, China is undertaking an extraordinary $1 trillion, 13,000 km build.

Looking at what is possible in Australia, it is clear that high-speed rail would reduce greenhouse emissions from transport and reduce congestion on the high-demand Melbourne-Sydney and Sydney-Brisbane flight routes and on the accident prone Pacific, Hume and Princes highways. The link would also generate thousands of jobs and promote regional development.

Many constituents have contacted me through the Fast Trains for Australia web campaign. I thank those who have taken the time to contact me and am pleased to say that, because of the Greens, we are starting to take the first concrete steps towards delivering high-speed rail for Australia.

The Greens have been campaigning for high-speed rail for a long time. In 2010, we moved a motion in the Senate for a feasibility study, but the coalition and the government opposed that motion. Following the election, a key part of the Greens' agreement to support the Gillard government was a $20 million dollar feasibility study on high-speed rail to be delivered by July. The study is now underway, coordinated by the Department of Infrastructure and Transport, and is drawing on international experience, public and private sector expertise and growth forecasts and other contemporary data. The first phase is on track to be completed by July and will identify requirements for a viable high-speed rail network, including consideration of route and station options and costing. For the second phase, the government has committed to a strategic study on the implementation of high-speed rail on the east coast of Australia.

I commend the government for following through on our agreement; however, I am disappointed by recent statements by the Minister for Infrastructure and Transport that the study should focus on his own state of New South Wales, by flagging the Sydney-Newcastle route as the government's priority. I would hope that the push for a national high-speed rail network is not being undermined by short-sightedness. The Newcastle-Sydney connection is one of the most difficult parts of an east-coast high-speed rail network to engineer, probably requiring large amounts tunnelling. Per kilometre, the Melbourne-Sydney leg will be cheaper and more cost effective, and the Sydney-Melbourne air route is the fourth-busiest air corridor in the world.

At a time when we are having discussions about the size of our cities—about whether they are sustainable and whether we should be putting limits on them—we should consider the potential benefits of a high-speed rail link connecting capital cities, from Sydney to Melbourne, with stops along the way and with alternative express routes. The benefits for towns along the way that might grow into cities are very obvious. In the United Kingdom, when the St Pancras to Kent line was built it was found that a number of people who would otherwise have lived in the city moved out to Kent for the benefits, and then found themselves only an hour away from their work. If you live 300 kilometres away from Melbourne you cannot commute; with high-speed rail you could do it on a regular basis. I and the Greens will be working hard to ensure that the priority will be given to a national network and not to a scaled back pilot for the minister's backyard in New South Wales.

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