Alice Springs to Darwin Railway Financial Committment Bill supported

Extract from Hansard

Legislative Council
18 November 1999

Mike Elliott
Leader Australian Democrats
Member of the Legislative Council

Parliament Index
1999 Spring Session Index
Browse by Subject
About the SA Parliament
Hansard on line

The Hon. M.J. ELLIOTT: The Democrats have been long-term supporters of rail transport during the past two decades when successive federal governments have not been spending on rail but in fact closing down rail. Throughout South Australia we saw lines being closed or lines, such as the Wolseley to Mount Gambier line, not remaining operative because governments could not find a bare $3 million to standardise.

We have seen an enormous wind back, and it is only during the past couple of years that things have finally been reversed. A number of reasons why I was very happy with the GST package that was finally negotiated was that, as part of those negotiations, some of the disadvantage that rail suffered relative to road was removed. There is no doubt in my mind that the viability of the Adelaide to Darwin line was significantly improved by the GST package.

My greatest disappointment is one which other members in this place have touched on: I believe that the federal government has not done anywhere near enough in this regard, and that might be a political mistake in terms of marketing. Even when I spoke a moment ago I talked about the Adelaide to Darwin line. In fact, there is already a line from Adelaide to Alice Springs, but the line that goes to Alice Springs also connects into the route that goes via Broken Hill to New South Wales, and the line to Adelaide also goes to Melbourne.

I think that we fail to convince Sydney and Melbourne that this is not just an Adelaide to Darwin line, but it is also a Sydney to Darwin line and a Melbourne to Darwin line. I think that was very strongly recognised by the Environment, Resources and Development Committee, which looked at rail links to the eastern states and, in fact, one of its recommendations was that we should be supporting a new line between Melbourne and Brisbane, with a major interchange at Parkes, and we were hoping that Parkes would act as a major centre, sending traffic particularly from Sydney, and even Brisbane, across to the line up to Darwin, and that we might also, of course, see more freight coming from Melbourne via Adelaide to Darwin.

It is worth noting that the Adelaide to Melbourne line has already been significantly upgraded in recent times. Some two hours have been taken off the trip and there is capacity to take another two hours off the trip, with relatively minor spending compared to what the Adelaide to Darwin line is costing us. I hope, of course, that we will have a Mount Gambier to Darwin line, too, because with the upgrade of the line from the South-East to Wolseley I am sure we will see freight even coming from the South-East going directly north.

The South-East is about to have a boom, in my view, and not just of grapes and blue gums, which seem to be the two flavours of the month, but I think we will see a significant increase in a range of other horticultural crops, cherries, apples, etc., and if they have the capacity to go directly to Darwin, which will clearly start acting as an entrepot port, with many small boats dispersing through the archipelago of Indonesia, Philippines and further north, then I think we will see a lot of material coming out of even the South-East of the state. It is not possible at this moment because the line is the wrong gauge.

Some three years ago the Hon. Sandra Kanck suggested in this place that some $800 million may be required to get the line built. I do not think quite that amount is going in. We certainly have some concern that more money may need to be spent.

The Hon. M.J. ELLIOTT: They were not just her figures but Rail 2000, among others, had made projections along those lines. We have already seen extra moneys having to go in. I am not for a moment begrudging that money, but I am making the point that I made at the beginning, that the eastern states must be persuaded that this is a project not just for South Australia. Clearly, we will be major beneficiaries, but if we can get very rapid freight moving out of Melbourne and also out of Sydney up to Darwin those two cities will also be major beneficiaries, and it is unreasonable that both the Northern Territory and South Australia have borne a large part of the funding requirements. I must say I do expect that some time in the next couple of years we will see at least a Melbourne to Brisbane line built, and I would just about guarantee that the federal government at that time will pour megabucks into that route.

The Hon. M.J. ELLIOTT: I think after East Timor certainly there is the pressure to make sure that we have good links particularly to the north. As I said in commencing, the Democrats are strongly supportive of the line. We have been proponents of it for many years and proponents of rail more generally. We are pleased that now at long last after promises going back to the beginning of the century it looks like it is going to be built and we urge the government to continue to try to get the federal government to pick up more obligation than it appears to have done so far.