Barnaby Joyce (New England, National Party, Leader of the Nationals) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for his question and note his intense interest in agriculture and how important it is in agriculture to make sure that we have the proper intermodal capacity for the efficient transport of bulk commodities such as wheat, cotton, beef and lamb and also in the mineral provinces for coal and for iron ore. That is why this government has had a substantial investment in rail infrastructure. For $220 million Murray Basin freight rail standardises 1,130 kilometre of rail to Geelong. It upgrades to 21 tonnes the standard gauge axle load, increasing train payloads from 300 tonnes to 400 tonnes. It's a 15 per cent productivity efficiency. Under this there'll be 20,000 fewer trucks on the road. It directly benefits the towns of Ulta, Mildura, Ouyen, Murrayville, Woomelang, Birchip, Donald, Ultima, Quambatook, Boort, Dunolly, Maryborough, Ballarat and Ararat.

This is part of $4.5 billion for road and rail works for Victoria, including the $1.42 billion Victorian Regional Rail Revival Program. With this regional rail revival there is an extra $20.2 million on top of the Murray Basin Rail Project—the Ballarat rail line upgrade, the Gippsland rail line upgrade, the Warrnambool rail line upgrade, the north-east rail upgrade, the Geelong rail upgrade, the Avon River Bridge upgrade and the Bendigo rail line upgrade.

I know that the Labor Party has a great aversion to the upgrade of rail. That's why they have no money on the table for the Inland Rail, apart from saying that it's a useful idea. And of course one of the greatest infrastructure projects of our nation is the Melbourne to Brisbane Inland Rail. I know that if the member for Grayndler had an absolute belief in it he would come to the dispatch box—

Ms Chesters interjecting—

See this speech in context