Bob Brown (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

That motion was for the Senate to call on the government to commission a feasibility study into the staged construction of a high-speed rail network on the east coast of Australia which could deliver accessible, fast, reliable and ecologically sustainable long distance transport. The motion which was just voted down by the government and the opposition en bloc prevents a call on the government to have a preliminary or feasibility study into high-speed rail between Brisbane, Newcastle, Sydney and Melbourne. I invite any member of the coalition or the government to explain why such a study should not be undertaken.

We live in a world in which high-speed rail is now replacing air travel as the most convenient, fast, cheap and environmentally acceptable way of travelling between major cities. The air route between Sydney and Melbourne is the third- or fourth-busiest in the world. High-speed rail offers the opportunity of travelling between those two cities within three hours. That is faster than it takes for a commuter to get to an airport and complete an equivalent journey from centre of city to centre of city but with business amenity and the ability to use electric equipment en route. I find it absolutely flabbergasting that the government and the opposition would want to prevent such a preliminary study coming from the government and I invite any member, particularly from the coalition, to explain why they were opposed to it.