Barnaby Joyce (New England, Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government. The minister has claimed that there is a $31 billion blowout in the cost of the construction of the Inland Rail. To give confidence to the validity of this number, as it seems rather incredible, can the minister nominate the five largest cost items and the amounts associated with them that are part of the $31 billion? And, if you can't nominate the five largest ones, can you nominate one and the cost item that is associated with it?

Ms Catherine King (Ballarat, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Well, I can nominate who's responsible for this debacle of a project, and that might be the person who asked me this question and some of his National Party colleagues. The Inland Rail, frankly, is an absolutely and utterly perfect example of why the National Party and their One Nation colleagues should never, ever, ever again be allowed near the Treasury coffers. This is the worst project in the country in the way in which it was developed, and I'm going to talk you through this.

In 2013, we provisioned $1 billion to do the planning work for Inland Rail—the planning work. It was never done. The government went out and announced a $9 billion program, funded by debt—not funded off cash balance, but funded off debt—to build Inland Rail without any planning and without any idea about how it was going to get into the port of Melbourne or into the port of Brisbane. They had no idea about that at all. Instead, they announced $9.3 billion to fund the whole thing. I'm giving you a history lesson here.

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The minister will pause. The member for New England on a point of order?

Barnaby Joyce (New England, Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I think I've been very fair. I've asked her to nominate items that make up the $31 billion. We haven't heard one as yet. I even offered that she just nominate one item and the amount that's associated with it. So it's most definitely on relevance. If she can't be relevant, can you please ask the minister to sit down.

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'm going to ask the minister to be directly relevant about the claims of the construction cost blowouts on the Inland Rail. She was asked about specifics regarding that. So far she's explaining to the House the costs that have been incurred. She does have another one minute and 40 seconds to get to the rest of the question. I'll make sure she is being directly relevant. She's giving cost breakdowns already. I don't know where she's going, but I'll listen carefully.

Ms Catherine King (Ballarat, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

By 2020 the cost estimate had then risen to $16.4 billion, again funded from debt. Of course, when we came to office in 2022, we inherited this project. The first thing that I was told by the Australian Rail Track Corporation, the ARTC, who all of the figures come from, was that the project would need substantially more funding to finish it, but the ARTC could not tell us how much. They did not know how much it would cost. So we commissioned an independent expert to review the project. Dr Schott, when she released her review—the figures were based on those from the ARTC itself—said it looked like it was going to cost an additional $31.4 billion, but she couldn't be sure. So we then got ARTC and then Inland Rail, having accepted all of those recommendations, to have a look at it again, and they said to us very clearly that it is now a $45 billion project. The summary of the ACIL Allen work, if you care to go and have a look, is on my department's website. It will show to you that all of the ARTC estimates say that it is now a $45 billion project.

Frankly, every single one of the people who've been involved in this project should hang their heads in shame. It is a project that, frankly—we will now get to Parkes, which will see us begin to get a return, finally, on our investment. We will never get the money back for Inland Rail. As I'd say in Victoria, you've got more front than Myers to ask that question. (Time expired)