Sharon Bird (Cunningham, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I acknowledge the contributions of the members for Cowper and Mallee, which were by and large constructive without taking too many political points on too many occasions. I would also like to acknowledge the presence in the chamber of the member for Hinkler, who chairs the Standing Committee on Transport and Regional Services, of which, like my colleague the member for Shortland, I am also a member.

I want to take the opportunity presented by this particular debate not only because I agree with the proposed motion and its sentiments but because it quite nicely dovetails with the inquiry, which, as I have referred, the current House of Representatives Standing Committee on Transport and Regional Services is undertaking. Of course, I would not pre-empt the consideration of the committee’s report or recommendations but during the evidence presented to the committee there has appeared to be a wide consensus among industry and government that we should do more—much more—for rail investment in Australia.

This debate on transport and the advantage and disadvantage of freight handling by road or rail—or even, indeed, by sea—has been widely canvassed for many decades. We have all heard the statistics that Australia’s freight task is due to increase by an extraordinary amount. In fact, it will at least double in the next couple of decades. It will put tremendous pressure on Australia’s east coast cities, and we are already seeing that. Already, state governments are starting to consider what this means to traffic, congestion, the environment and urban infrastructure, and how east coast ports will contend with all this activity.

In New South Wales, the Labor government has reconsidered its ports infrastructure by establishing its Ports Growth Plan, announced in 2003. The Illawarra region’s Port of Port Kembla, which I share with my other colleague in the House the member for Throsby, will massively increase its own freight handling task. Since the 2003 announcement, the New South Wales government has spent $14 million extending the existing multipurpose berth. At the moment, it is spending another $60 million on building administration centres, and warehouses to handle general cargo and the import of cars.

We already know the port can handle the new freight task, because we did it during the 2000 Sydney Olympics when over 9,000 cars imported during those games came through the Port of Port Kembla to take pressure off congestion in Sydney, and we undertook that task with existing infrastructure. Estimates are that, starting in 2008, the Port of Port Kembla will handle more than 240,000 car imports each year. With this port growth development underway at the Port of Port Kembla, this magnificent regional economic asset, when fully fitted up, could contribute $400 million to the Illawarra economy, according to the National Institute for Economic and Industry Research.

When I was first elected and appointed to the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Transport and Regional Services, and indeed during the process of finalising the terms of reference for the current inquiry, I deliberately placed the completion of the Maldon-Dombarton rail link back on the agenda. The Maldon-Dombarton rail link is a 35-kilometre link to the Port of Port Kembla which is half completed. In 1983 the Wran Labor government started the planning and it implemented the enabling legislation. The Greiner government stopped the project to complete this most strategic line in 1988 at the Avon Tunnel. It paid out $4.5 million in compensation to the contractors at this point rather than finish the job. My colleague the member for Cook would know all about that because he was the transport minister for New South Wales at the time.

Lest I be accused of being partisan, let me say that since that time I have acknowledged that all of the government and industry advice indicated that the completion of the Maldon-Dombarton was not considered viable at that time because the business model relied heavily on coal. But, as I tell my state parliamentary colleagues and others, in acknowledging this fact, the government and industry advice also contains some very significant qualifications. In 1994, the New South Wales department of transport advice to the then minister said, ‘at this stage’. The view of major industry in the Illawarra has also changed significantly. Indeed, the Port Kembla Coal Terminal has now indicated support for the completion of this link.

I also wish to acknowledge the untiring efforts of one of Australia’s experts on rail, Dr Philip Laird at the University of Wollongong, who has been a constant advocate for the completion of the Maldon-Dombarton link. Since I put Maldon-Dombarton back on the agenda, I have monitored with quiet interest the range of individuals and organisations that have now emerged to champion its completion. Indeed, it is often said that success has a thousand fathers but failure is an orphaned child. I can well see the evidence of that today. As the nation experiences a minerals and resources boom and the local Wollongong community continues to see the enormous investment going into the Port of Port Kembla, a major reassessment of the feasibility of the Maldon-Dombarton is taking place. (Time expired)

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