Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party, Leader of the Nationals) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for her question and her interest in Inland Rail. Last Friday, indeed, I was with the member for Parkes at Moree, where we turned the first sod for the Narrabri to North Star section, 171 kilometres, $693.8 million. Recently—on 15 September, in fact—the Parkes to Narromine section, the first of 13, was completed, and it was great to hammer in that golden spike. Perhaps more importantly, 99 local businesses were successful in helping, in getting the benefit of the $110 million procurement.

To the member's question, this important project, as she indicated, is transformational. It is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. It took a Liberal-National government to be delivering it. It took us to be delivering it. Now, 16,000 jobs will be supported by Inland Rail during construction and operation, 2,800 of them in Victoria, and certainly the member's electorate will benefit from that. She asks about particular stations. Benalla station: while a full upgrade to the Benalla station is out of scope for the delivery of Inland Rail, the ARTC has committed to capture the requirements for the Benalla station precinct as a whole, in an effort to deliver a solution that meets requirements as best as possible, to complement the council's planning schemes and not preclude opportunities to expand or upgrade the station in the—

See this speech in context