Sophie Mirabella (Indi, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Local Government) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on a matter of great importance to the people of Wodonga, in my electorate: the Wodonga Rail Bypass. It is one project that has been spoken about for too long with no action. The Victorian government, which has carriage of the project, has treated the people of Wodonga with contempt and disdain in its clumsy and late handling of this vital piece of transport infrastructure. It is an overdue and exciting project and is most notably in the all-important freight corridor between Melbourne and Sydney.

The former coalition government had a proud record of investment in road and rail infrastructure and ensured that rail continued to play its important role in the burgeoning freight task in Australia, and this focus must continue. As far back as December 2000, the Howard government committed $20 million for the Wodonga Rail Bypass, even though the Victorian government has complete carriage of this project. This money was not used, and the 2004 AusLink white paper continued to recommit funding for this project. The Victorian government has not proceeded with the bypass in isolation from the rail standardisation of the broad gauge track.

Following an initial request made to then Minister Truss in 2005, the Victorian government submitted a detailed project proposal on the Wodonga Rail Bypass to then Minister Vaile in October 2006. The proposal was confirmed, and the request from the Victorian government to the Australian government for an extra $25 million was to be taken from the allocation for rail standardisation. That money was to be transferred from the rail standardisation to the Wodonga project. In spite of delays which have blown out the cost of the project, earlier last year I was pleased to welcome the then Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Transport and Regional Services, Mark Vaile, to Wodonga to announce funding of $45 million, capped for the whole project. We are now asking the Victorian government to get on with the job.

The Leader of the Opposition visited Wodonga as part of his listening tour earlier this year and saw for himself how the current track cuts through the heart of the city and strangles the growth of the city’s potential. In 2007, John Brumby said the project would be delayed by a couple of months from its proposed March 2007 start to the finalisation of the purchase of the Victorian rail system by the state from Pacific National. The Minister for Public Transport, Ms Kosky, said that the project will start by April 2007. Still, not one single sleeper has been removed. There is only so much wool you can pull over people’s eyes.

I hear that the minister for infrastructure may soon be visiting Wodonga. It will be good for the new Labor minister to get out of Sydney and come to rural and regional Australia, to my area on the border to see what life is like in Wodonga. I would appreciate welcoming him, to highlight how important this project is to Wodonga’s future and how the city is being held back by the Victorian Labor government’s intransigence and incompetence. It is time for the buck-passing and mismanagement to end. It is time for the Spring Street spin to end. Speaking on behalf of the people of Wodonga, I say that we just want the project to get underway.