Don Farrell (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Trade and Tourism) | Hansard source

Well, let's assume for the purpose of the debate—and perhaps in your subsequent question, you can answer that question—if this item has only recently been put forward to the NAIF then I don't think the proponents on a proposal like this, a very dramatic big-picture proposal, should necessarily expect a response in weeks. It obviously is a very ambitious project. I can recall when South Australia handed back the Northern Territory to the federal government in 1911, the condition was that the railway line between Alice Springs and Darwin would be completed and that took another 80 years to happen, so these big-picture proposals don't occur overnight. But can I say this— (Time expired)