Arthur Sinodinos (NSW, Liberal Party, Minister for Industry, Innovation and Science) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the honourable member for his question. I also recognise the delegates, and I'll be seeing them after question time and we'll be having a good discussion about all of this. When I spoke at the Manufacturing Summit some weeks ago here, I talked about the government's plans in relation to the rail sector, including the fact that we do want to look at the concept of a continuous build when it comes to aspects of rail manufacturing and construction here in Australia. We have to recognise we're not as competitive in this sector as we could be, because of scale considerations. But we believe that with smart manufacturing we can do much better in this particular sector.

What gives me great optimism that we'll be able to do that is the fact that this government, in this budget, featured a $20 billion long-term investment in passenger and freight rail, including a $10 billion National Rail Program for urban and regional passenger rail, an additional $8.4 billion to deliver the Melbourne to Brisbane Inland Rail freight link, and more than $1.3 billion for regional rail projects in Victoria, the Perth METRONET and faster city-regional connections. In other words, we are amping up our effort as a country in the rail sector. This provides us with an opportunity to come up with a national rail plan in a way that creates a globally competitive industry in this regard.