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

I genuinely thank the member for his question and can, right at the start, say the route is determined. It is absolutely set. It's been through cabinet, and we're getting on with it. We're getting on with the job. That is what we do. And why we are getting on with the job is because this 1,700 kilometre piece of nation-building infrastructure is so vital for us taking this economy ahead. This 1,700 kilometre piece of infrastructure will have 3.6-kilometre-long trains going along it at 110 kilometres an hour. On this 1,700 kilometre piece of infrastructure, each one of those trains will take 110 B-Doubles off the road, and it will take more than 150 semitrailers off the road, each one using around over 600 litres of diesel—one of the great carbon abatement policies that goes to show how the Prime Minister and I and our colleagues are using technology.

We are using technology to take this nation ahead. And that 1,700 kilometre piece of infrastructure will drive decentralisation, drive the growth of the town of Parkes, drive the growth of the town of Narrabri, drive the growth of the town of Goondiwindi, drive the growth of the City of Toowoomba and assist in the further growth of the great cities of Melbourne and Brisbane.

We have a vision. We have a vision for this nation, because we could not rely on the Labor Party's vision for this nation. We could not. For them, the best we got was it was a 'nice idea'—a nice idea! But it's not a nice idea for us; it is a reality. And, as we drive this piece of infrastructure forward, we're going to make sure that the people who produce the culverts, the people who produce the bridges, will be producing the jobs in regional Australia. Even in my own electorate of New England we are building the culverts. We have jobs. A place that used to only have 12 jobs now has over 100 jobs, and that is this nation at work and that is competent management and that is us taking this project ahead. Every day I'm making sure that we put our shoulder to the wheel to see this project finalised.

I am very happy that you ask about the Inland Rail, because every time we see the Inland Rail we see something that the coalition is doing and the Labor Party never did. They had no intention of doing it. It was never going to happen. All we have, and we still have, is that now they are saying they might do it to Gladstone. They were never going to do anything else of it. Of course they're not going to do it to Gladstone, because they don't believe in it. But we do. I thank the honourable member for his question and I look forward to many more questions on one of the great pieces of infrastructure in this nation that we will build and we will see completed because we have a plan.

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