Peter Hendy (Eden-Monaro, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The time has come to accelerate the cause of the very fast train, otherwise known as the high-speed rail project. In my maiden speech to parliament I talked about the need for rural and regional Australia to get a fair go. I talked of the importance of re-establishing a country-city compact that previously recognised the importance to urban Australians of the development of regional Australia for the future prosperity of the nation as a whole.

I am strongly behind the high-speed rail project because of its major implications for developing regional Australia. As the federal member of parliament representing the south-east corner of New South Wales, which encompasses much of the capital region, I have a personal interest in this because every major high-speed rail proposal put forward over the last three decades has nominated the Sydney-Canberra corridor as the first stage of any such project.

The federal government has rightly nominated infrastructure spending as a key to productivity growth. It is a central plank of our economic strategy for building the nation in the 21st century. The government has already committed $300 million to finalise the plans for the inland rail project between Brisbane and Melbourne. This is a freight rail project that when completed will substantially reduce the travel times—up to 25 per cent—between those two cities and bypass the congestion on Sydney freight lines. The construction itself will take many years and an estimated capital cost of $4.7 billion. It is a real nation-building project.

Equally, however, great attention should be given to high-speed rail. Happily, the government has announced that it is working with state governments to protect the identified rail corridors to ensure that, if and when the high-speed rail proceeds, it can do so in the least-cost way. Such a long-term project will lead to development in our region that kills once and for all Canberra's unhealthy dependency on the federal public service and concerns about being a one-company town. It will also help with wider regional development.

Just making an economically stronger Canberra will help the region; but, further, if a terminus came into Canberra Airport, it would be even more significant. The linkages with Moruya and Merimbula airports and, hopefully, a revived Snowy Mountains Airport south of Cooma would lead to huge economic spin-offs. Commuting from Goulburn to Sydney would become viable.

A detailed study for the federal government released in April 2013 by AECOM consultants costed the high-speed rail at $114 billion for 1,748 kilometres of track that would take until 2065 to build. That would cover a route from Melbourne via Canberra and Sydney to Brisbane with 12 stops in regional Australia. Other researchers have estimated that it would cost between $63 billion and $84 billion to be built as early as 2025. The Sydney-Canberra link, according to AECOM's higher costings, would be $23 billion.

Obviously these are substantial amounts of money. Together with my parliamentary colleague the member for Bennelong I have met with overseas proponents who are prepared to put private-sector capital behind the project. There are Japanese and Chinese investors who are prepared to spend serious money. Indeed, the completion of the recent trade agreements with China and Japan make the opportunities for such investment all the more attractive. I recently inspected the Chinese high-speed rail and participated in discussions at their Ministry of Railways. China, with its vast population, has a remarkably different economic equation from us for this transport mode; however, the various studies recently done show that it is viable.

Let me be clear: my support is not based on some pie in the sky hope that the private sector can fully fund such a project. An objective reading of the research shows that even with private sector involvement there would be a heavy reliance on the public purse, but how is that different from the tens of billions of dollars being spent on urban infrastructure right now for which rural taxpayers see little commercial return to help them meet their cost-of-living pressures. Regional Australians do not begrudge taxpayer spending on urban infrastructure but seem to cop it when it is used as an excuse for why they do not receive it in return.

In conclusion, I have presented some food for thought on how we can grow regional Australia and attract population away from the choking megacities. We could have a country-city compact that produces win-win results. I thank the House.

Bruce Scott (Maranoa, Deputy-Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! It being almost 9:30 pm, the debate is interrupted.

House adjourned at 9:29