THE Australian Rail Track Corporation has been accused of a lack of openness and transparency over its handling of the Queensland section of the Melbourne-Brisbane inland rail route.
Member for Southern Downs and former LNP leader Lawrence Springborg speaking in parliament said the had not treated the Millmerran community or people on the Condamine floodplain with respect.
Central to the concern is ARTC’s failure to explain how the inland rail can cross 16km of floodplain without altering flood patterns and what steps are being taken to minimise the dissection of farm businesses.
“They were highly evasive and were not able to answer the questions that they should have been able to answer on a project which is almost universally supported,” Mr Springborg said.
ARTC has been misleading us into believing that there is an engineering solution that has been properly and comprehensively costed.
- Lawrence Springborg, member for Southern Downs
“It is appalling that this federal government owned company has been so bad that it has been able to turn so many people against what is a nation-building project.”
Mr Springborg’s comments come as National’s MPs led by David Littleproud (Maranoa) write demanding Infrastructure Minister Darren Chester rethinks a controversial route announced in mid-September.
Mr Springborg said the recent Senate estimates hearing in Canberra had only added to community concerns.
“Both Infrastructure Australia and ARTC were absolutely and comprehensively eviscerated when it came to their lack of knowledge and evasiveness,” Mr Springborg said.
“People can draw only one conclusion and that is that they have been so badly prepared. They have no answer to crossing the floodplain between Millmerran and Brookstead. They have also been misleading us into believing that there is an engineering solution that has been properly and comprehensively costed. That is not the case.”
Mr Springborg said ARTC was risking a project that had universal support.
“There is one way to solve this and that is to go ahead with contract and construction of the area east of Gowrie and Whetstone to the west – there is very little argument over that – and to take the time over the next few years to get the rest of the route selection right,” Mr Springborg said.
“It is a project that will not be running trains until probably the middle of the next decade and it should be got right.”
Mr Springborg told parliament he was also concerned that the state's interest has not been sufficiently protected.
“Last year when I rose in this parliament and subsequently in discussions with the minister for transport at that time, the Leader of Government Business, and also the Minister for State Development, I indicated that the state's interest should be protected because we will be led by the nose,” he said.
“That is precisely what happened. ARTC is now expecting the state will relent and use its acquisition power as part of a joint acquisition authority to acquire properties. That is wrong.
“We need to protect and preserve the interests of the floodplain with a proper costed engineered solution and avoid splitting properties to the west. It is about time that ARTC was honest and came out and told us what is going on and not evade and avoid as it has been doing.”