Craig Kelly (Hughes, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I have long warned that the proposed intermodal at Moorebank is destined to be a complete white elephant. If that was not obvious in the past, then, with the latest developments, it certainly should be now, and it is time for a complete rethink. Firstly, the Enfield intermodal—what Infrastructure New South Wales labelled the 'test case' for the viability of Moorebank—is now years overdue, and its operator has pulled out. Secondly, we have had announcements from competitors to the Moorebank intermodal: we have had Toll and Japan Post planning an intermodal site at Villawood, and we have had Asciano's plan to expand their intermodal facility at Chullora, in addition to building a new facility at St Mary's, in close proximity to Sydney's major distribution centres at Eastern Creek. These will make Moorebank redundant. As CEO John Mullen said, the Asciano sites at Chullora and St Mary's:

… were better located near the existing freight precincts where customers already have warehouses and distribution centres.

"The reality is that customers drive this, not us, …

He said that it is Asciano's customers:

that dictate how and where their freight moves and we are just responding to what those demands are."

When the pin is finally pulled on Moorebank intermodal, it will go down in history as a textbook case of a 'planning fallacy'—yet another example where government bureaucrats, with their central planning, think they are picking a winner but only end up picking a loser. It is time for a complete rethink on this project, for it is destined to be a complete and utter white elephant. (Time expired)