Alex Hawke (Mitchell, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise tonight to condemn the recent decision by Infrastructure Australia to advise the government to reject a request from the New South Wales government to fund the North West rail line. I want to make it clear from the beginning that this is against the express advice of the New South Wales government, the facts available on Sydney infrastructure in recent years and the quality of applications that have been made. In fact, this casts a very bad light on the government's new policy of having a national infrastructure body to determine priorities according to need, not according to political priorities. It is a fact, of course, that this Labor government has not spent a single dollar on funding for infrastructure in metropolitan Sydney—not a single dollar. We are all aware of the debacle of the funding for a study for a metro line, only for it to have to be handed back by a state Labor government incompetent to administer anything. However, that should not penalise an entire city for all time.

The north-west is well regarded as one of Sydney's and the nation's fastest growing regions. This rail network that the state government is planning for will improve congestion and take about 40,000 passengers down the North West rail line from the Western, Richmond and Northern lines, easing overcrowding for commuters in those areas of Sydney. It will support about 16,000 jobs and inject $25 billion into the state's economy. It is regarded as the single largest tunnel rail project in Australia's history.

I have spoken to the New South Wales state government and looked at what the record of this has been. I want to record for the House in the strongest possible terms that the Premier, Barry O'Farrell, met with the federal Minister for Infrastructure and Transport, the member for Grayndler, and informed him of the New South Wales government's determination to deliver the North West rail line as a priority. The Premier, Barry O'Farrell, has written to the transport minister asking that he join the New South Wales government and find a way for the Commonwealth to help fund the North West rail line. The Premier has met with the Prime Minister to outline how the North West rail line is a priority for New South Wales and metropolitan Sydney. The Premier has written to the Prime Minister requesting that she directly fund the North West rail line.

Despite this unquestionable need for the rail link and despite the clear position of the New South Wales government, this government has allocated funding to an Epping to Parramatta rail line. It is now well established, of course, that this proposal was a last-minute promise by the Labor government in the lead-up to the 2010 election. This pre-election offer was made just 10 days prior to the last election, without consultation and with no submission before the federal government to Infrastructure Australia. The New South Wales government, in contrast, submitted a 2,200-page environmental impact statement which included all the benefits this North West rail line project will bring to the community, and it was told that not enough work had been put into this 2,200-page submission. Contrast that with the New South Wales Labor government submitting five pages of information to the federal government seeking funding for a scoping study on the Parramatta to Epping rail line. Well, lo and behold, this government, with a five-page submission, got $2.1 billion in the 2010-11 mid-year economic forecasts from 2014 onwards; yet a 2,200 page submission with an EIS has been knocked back by this federal government and Infrastructure Australia. The hypocrisy is absolutely astounding. Given that Labor has built no infrastructure in metropolitan Sydney for the last four years, this playing politics with rail lines in the nation's biggest city has to come to an end.

I also want to record tonight that we have a break in the clouds on the horizon. The member for Greenway, Michelle Rowland, has come forward and said that she opposes Infrastructure Australia's decision to revise against the funding for the North West rail line. I will quote from page 3 of the Rouse Hill Times of 9 May:

"There is no argument it has to be built" she said. "It will be regardless. It is Barry's holy grail, which I fully support."

Clearly, the member for Greenway sees the North West rail line as a vital piece of rail infrastructure that will service not just her own electorate but also my electorate and the people of north-west Sydney and provide the best bang for the buck in the Sydney metropolitan area.

That is why I am going to be calling upon this House and the government to allocate the $2.1 billion that is in the mid-year economic forecasts of 2010-11 for the 2014 year for the Parramatta to Epping rail line to be reallocated to the New South Wales government to make their determination about what is the most important rail priority. Given the member for Greenway's comments, I am going to be asking her to join me in this call, ensuring that both of our electorates are well looked after and this money is well allocated on the right projects based on transport priorities and not political circumstance.

Sydney is sick of rail line politics. It was 16 years under a previous Labor state administration. We now have a federal Infrastructure Australia body. We now have the ability to ensure that this most important rail line project in metropolitan Sydney and in the country is well funded, built on time and enhances our transport situation in a congested city.