NATIONAL Farmers Federation President Brent Finlay said his lobby group’s pre-budget submission demanded the government make “a clear commitment to actually build the inland rail”.
Mr Finlay said he understood the ambitious $10 billion project was in Infrastructure Australia’s 15 year strategic plan but it should be “right up the front” of the government agency’s priority list.
He said the inland rail had been talked about for more than 20 years but “it’s now time to do it”.
But if next week’s federal budget provides no clear commitment to build it, “there will be fairly significant pushback” from farmers, he said.
“The hype is there but we now need to do it,” he said.
“Instead of projects that only build Melbourne or Sydney the inland rail is a nation building project that helps to build the entire east coast of Australia.”
Mr Finlay said the NFF wouldn’t launch a straight up campaign if the budget ignored the inland rail; like the lobby group did in calling on the government to reverse its increase to the backpacker tax on July 1, to help protect the supply of seasonal workers.
But he said the NFF and other groups would be prepared to make “a lot of comment” about the lack of inland rail commitment, during the election campaign period, if demands were ignored.
“Everyone gets a louder voice during that process and we’ll use that opportunity wisely,” he forewarned.
Mr Finlay said the NFF hadn’t talked about what actual dollar amount they believed was needed to commence the inland rail’s construction but welcomed the government allocating funds already to help determine where rail lines would be built and other implementation details.
He said the government would not build the inland rail themselves and the project would also require a significant level of private investment that must be encouraged.
“We’ve heard a lot of talk about all the money that sits in super funds so here’s an opportunity for them to come in and invest on a nation building project,” he said.
Regional Development Minister Fiona Nash said she’d always been a “huge backer “of the inland rail ever since it was first conceived and in recent years given its capacity to boost regional development and reconfigure the national freight load.
Asked if the Coalition would make a commitment to commence construction in the upcoming budget, or an election policy, Senator Nash said the issue was currently being discussed and regional members were continuing to push it.
“The forward progression of the inland rail project is something that’s being considered,” she said.
“I am pushing very hard, as all of my Nationals’ colleagues have been, to make the inland rail become a reality because we can see the real benefits in that across a whole range of areas but particularly for the regions.
“There will be real opportunities for the regions to gain access points on the inland rail and the speed at which we will see freight move around will be hugely beneficial.
“And what it does in terms of addressing the freight task on the road is important.
“With the freight task potentially doubling on the road by 2025 we need to be innovative in the how we are looking at that freight task and the inland rail certainly delivers on that.”
Infrastructure and Transport Minister Darren Chester said the inland rail project delivered multiple benefits for regional communities; not just cutting agriculture supply chain costs.
Mr Chester said from a regional development perspective the new rail line allowed communities throughout the east coast of Australia to further capitalise on Free Trade Agreements signed by the Coalition government.
He said the 1700kms rail segment from Brisbane to Melbourne would also reduce traffic congestion and create economic opportunities for towns situated on the rail line’s route.
One train could carry approximately the same load as 10 B-double trucks which would remove 200,000 truck movements from roads each year, he said.
“For mums and dads travelling along the highway there will be a safer route for them with less interaction of heavy vehicles,” he said.
“But given our expectation the freight task will also grow in the future there will still be opportunities for truck drivers; it’s not as if one part of the transport chain is going to miss out.
“From an economic perspective it’s about providing an efficient way of moving freight up and down the east coast.”
Mr Chester said another benefit that wasn’t often discussed was the rail line’s capacity to link into the east-west link from Perth and Adelaide into Brisbane too also improve economic opportunities.
