David Gillespie (Lyne, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

Investment in rail projects by the federal government around the nation is at historic high levels. The federal and Queensland governments have just signed a bilateral agreement to provide certainty for the Inland Rail project through Queensland, which will support 7,200 jobs and boost the Queensland gross state product by $7 billion. Sixty per cent of the $9.3 billion project, up to $6 billion of Inland Rail monies, will be spent in Queensland. Four-hundred kilometres will be in Queensland. It will be an amazing freight and business boost for everyone along the corridor. It's 1,800 kilometres of improvements. Forty per cent of the trains will be double stacked. It will remove 110 B-double trucks every time a train goes by. It won't just move freight off roads onto trains; people on the Pacific Highway on the coast will not have all the freight going up through their road corridors. It will also remove them from the Warrego Highway and Ipswich Motorway areas.

There are $2 billion on the table for Melbourne to Geelong, but we are awaiting Victorian government support. Passenger rail is also being upgraded. There are federal funds on the table of $5 billion for the Melbourne Airport rail link.

There are Regional Rail Revival funds of $884 million, $2.3 billion for METRONET in Perth— (Time expired)

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