Murray Basin Rail failure misses market opportunity – Nats

THE Victorian Labor Government has failed to deliver a “transformational opportunity” to open north-west Victorian producers up to domestic and international markets, according to The Nationals.

Nationals leader Peter Walsh said the government had made “an absolute mess” of the Murray Basin Rail Project, which was now out of funding and had stalled.

Mr Walsh said producers and transport stakeholders in north-west Victoria had told him they were now worse off than before work started after Labor’s cost blowouts, missed deadlines, poor procurement and appalling contract management.

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“The Murray Basin Rail Project … is a totally botched project,” Mr Walsh told State Parliament last week.

“What has been built is actually worse than when they started it — the trains are running slower than before that project was started,” he said.

“A once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to standardise and upgrade all the freight lines of north-west Victoria, less than half of it is done, the budget has been expended and there is no commitment to fix that project.”

Mr Walsh said the Commonwealth Government had sought a business case for the remainder of the project and was prepared to discuss what needed to be done to finish it.

“What more can a Federal Government do that wants to actually help with this project?” he said.

“It wants to help fund projects in Victoria, and the (Transport Infrastructure) Minister (Jacinta Allan) will not even put forward a business case for that.

“That was an absolutely appalling decision.”

The Nationals’ deputy leader Steph Ryan said the government had tried to walk away with the project half-finished.

“The Minister for Transport Infrastructure has done absolutely nothing to fix a project that has gone completely off the rails,” Ms Ryan told parliament.

“The Victorian Government was required to put in a business case to the Federal Government by the end of last year that outlined how they would actually complete those final stages of the project. I do not know if that has happened.

“The minister certainly has not been up-front or transparent with those people in western Victoria who rely on that project to get their produce to port.

That is an incredibly important project in western Victoria and another that the government has basically just walked away from.

“While they tip money in to cover cost blowouts in projects in the city all the time, in the country, when it comes to something like the Murray Basin Rail Project, they just walk away and leave it half-finished.”