Wednesday, 30 October 2019

Murray Basin rail project

Mr WALSH (Murray Plains) (11:14): My question is to the Minister for Transport Infrastructure. On 19 June 2018 the minister told this house about the Murray Basin rail project, that it has taken a Labor government to complete the business case, yet on 20 October 2019 the minister appeared on Channel 9 News and said that the business case was done by the previous government. Which statement is correct, Minister: the one you told Parliament or the one you made on Channel 9 News?

Ms ALLAN (Bendigo East—Leader of the House, Minister for Transport Infrastructure) (11:14): I am very pleased to answer the question. It has been a while since we have heard in this place during question time from the member for Murray Plains. The question of the business case—

Members interjecting.

Ms ALLAN: Sorry, I thought the Leader of the National Party might want to hear this. The Leader of the National Party knows very well, and indeed the Leader of the Opposition in the upper house put on record yesterday, that the business case was started and the scope of works to allocate the $440 million was done by the previous Liberal-National government. That was what the Leader of the Opposition put on the record in the upper house yesterday. Now, of course—

Mr Walsh: On a point of order, Speaker, the issue is of relevance. I appreciate the minister has had some time to set the scene, but there was a very specific question of the minister: was her statement in this house in June 2018 the correct one, or was the statement she made on Channel 9 News in October this year the correct one? I would ask you to bring her back to actually answering that question. We have had time for history; we have had time for a bit of setting of the scene. Let us get to actually answering the question for once.

The SPEAKER: Order! The minister shall come to answering the question.

Ms ALLAN: Well, indeed I am answering the question, because this business case, as I said, did start under the former Liberal-National government, by whom, as the Leader of the Opposition in the upper house said, the scope of works was set and the budget was set. But guess what did not happen? Not one piece of work started on the Murray Basin rail project until the Andrews Labor government came to office. And I will acknowledge—

Mr Walsh: On a point of order, Speaker, I reinstate my previous point of order—that the minister clearly told this house in June 2018 that the Labor government completed the project and took responsibility for it. I ask you to bring her back to answering which statement was actually true. Did she mislead the house?

The SPEAKER: Order! The minister is being relevant to the question that has been asked.

Ms ALLAN: Indeed I was coming to that point before the Leader of the National Party jumped up in haste. I was coming to that point because I do acknowledge that the scope of works that was set out by the former government has created some real challenges for us as we have gone in and got into that delivery stage, and I have acknowledged that. I have put this on the public record time and again that we have acknowledged that there have been some challenges with the delivery of stage 2. There is nothing new. There is nothing—

Members interjecting.

The SPEAKER: Order! If members are shouting at a level where I cannot hear the minister’s answer, it defeats the purpose of question time. I ask members not to shout or they will be removed from the chamber.

Ms ALLAN: I answered questions extensively on this at last year’s and this year’s Public Accounts and Estimates Committee’s hearings. As the Leader of the National Party also knows, because he has been privy to one of the conversations I have had with the Deputy Prime Minister on this subject, standing there as we were on the banks of the Murray River at Echuca, announcing another project that we are working on with the federal government, the federal minister for infrastructure and I, along with the Leader of the National Party, took the opportunity to have what I thought was a bipartisan conversation about the future of the project. Clearly I was wrong. I can inform the Leader of the National Party that despite the deficiencies of the business case that was started under the former government, we are working very hard. Indeed we have delivered stage 2. We are keeping the Manangatang line open for this current grain season, and I am working with the federal infrastructure minister on the remainder of the project.

Mr WALSH (Murray Plains) (11:19): Minister, the Rail Freight Alliance has said of your botched Murray Basin rail project, ‘We were better off before the project started’. Minister, how long will it take to fix this botched project or has the government simply just abandoned it?

Ms ALLAN (Bendigo East—Leader of the House, Minister for Transport Infrastructure) (11:19): I resoundingly reject the claims of the Rail Freight Alliance. I do note the chief spokesman was defeated for National Party preselection by the former federal member for Mallee, Andrew Broad. I do note that that is the spokesperson for the Rail Freight Alliance. There have been significant improvements, and I will tell you what they are. We have seen greater competition, which means Victorian producers are delivering grain into New South Wales for the first time in a long time. We are also seeing that companies like Seaway are establishing new infrastructure off the back of the works that are being done as part of stage 2. I have acknowledged some of the challenges. We do not walk away from challenges with projects; we work out how to address them—

Members interjecting.

Ms ALLAN: I tell you what, Speaker, the Leader of the Opposition has one thing over the Leader of the National Party: he has got one more vote in his party room.