Warren Truss (Wide Bay, National Party, Leader of the Nationals) Share this | Hansard source

The reality is that, yes, both Labor and the coalition promised this railway line in the 2010 election but it had to wait until we were elected to actually get started, to get built and underway. There are also commitments to the Advanced Train Management System between Port Augusta and Whyalla, the Melbourne metropolitan intermodal scheme and the $120 million to continue the upgrading of the Tasmanian rail system. I am sure the honourable member for Parkes will be particularly interested in one of the other flagship commitments in this budget, and that is $300 million towards the new Melbourne to Brisbane inland rail. We are getting on with the job—a project that Labor neglected during its time in office. We have put in place an implementation committee, and they are working on developing key initial projects that might well be able to begin promptly. They have identified three areas: the Rosewood to Kagaru section in Queensland, the Narrabri to North Star section in New South Wales and the Parkes to Narromine section in New South Wales. Some of those areas are obviously in the member's electorate.

So we have a real commitment to getting the inland rail project underway. It is a project that will make a real difference to the movement of freight between our second and third largest cities but also provide new outlets for production, particularly in inland New South Wales, the member's electorate, to enable it to get to a port more smoothly and more efficiently. This is a major new project that will make a real difference to the transport network of our nation.

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