Cory Bernardi (SA, Australian Conservatives) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the minister. It was recently reported that the former head of construction giant Thiess, Martin Albrecht, wanted to tender for the Melbourne to Brisbane rail project, had spent $20 million on feasibility studies and believed that he could achieve the same aims as the government with $3 billion in federal funding. Given that a truly conservative government would intervene only in cases of market failure, can the minister guarantee that there was no commercially competitive alternative to the government's rail project?