ABC Newcastle, Paul Culliver

PAUL CULLIVER: Catherine King is the Federal Minister for Infrastructure and Transport and is visiting the region today. Let’s find out why. Minister, good morning to you.

CATHERINE KING: Hi, Paul. How are you?

PAUL CULLIVER: I’m very well. What brings you to the region?

CATHERINE KING: Well, today– I was actually here three weeks ago inspecting the Singleton Bypass, which is going along well. It’s a really important part of infrastructure here for the region. But we’re also announcing today that because of the great work they’ve done on Singleton, it means that we can now bring money forward to get the Muswellbrook Bypass started. There was always an issue between the two projects, just making sure we had the workforce and capacity to do that work. So today we’re announcing that we’re going to bring that Muswellbrook Bypass money forward. We’ll start to see some early works and activities, movement of services and things like that through the course of the next few months so that we can start work to get that really– next important project underway.

And then we’re also starting– we’re putting some money in to do the planning work to actually start thinking about how do we then build a bypass for Cessnock. And again, this is about making sure we can get the huge volumes of traffic that we’re now seeing through what largely were really small country towns originally, but have seen such growth, to get the traffic out, get people to work more quickly, but give people back their main streets.

PAUL CULLIVER: All right. On the Muswellbrook Bypass – so how much money is sort of being put into this early start?

CATHERINE KING: Yeah. So the total Australian Government commitment is $304 million. And the amount of money we’re bringing forward is really just– is to do that early work. So making sure that we’ve got the services movement, that’s often the biggest part of the preparation work that needs to be done. So, moving– whether it’s sewerage works, water, utilities, power utilities, those sorts of things. So quite a bit of the money, is being brought forward to do that.

PAUL CULLIVER: Okay. And– sorry, when you say brought forward, how much sooner is all of this beginning?

CATHERINE KING: Well, it was not due to start– early works were not due to start until next year, but they’ll start this year. So it’s a year early.

PAUL CULLIVER: Okay, actual 12 months early.

CATHERINE KING: Yeah, which is good.

PAUL CULLIVER: Understood. Just explain when you say that– what, things went so well on the Singleton Bypass that that’s allowed this to happen? Just explain what that actually means.

CATHERINE KING: Yeah, so there was always what we had to do when we looked at the pipeline of projects. And as people are driving around, you can see there’s a lot of work going on at the moment, whether it’s from Hexham, Raymond Terrace, obviously Singleton, that there just were some issues in terms of making sure we had the workforce to be able to deliver these projects, that Transport for New South Wales also could manage those projects as well. So we were waiting to see– get Singleton started first. That’s really now well and truly underway and looking very good, so that’s allowed us then to bring Muswellbrook a bit forward so that we can actually start work on that and have that continuous pipeline of work for people in the district.

PAUL CULLIVER: Yeah, right. So it’s not so much that the people working on Singleton will be the people working on the Muswellbrook Bypass.

CATHERINE KING: Well, obviously that will need to go out to tender. New South Wales will manage all of that project. But generally people move from work site to work site. Generally, that’s what happens in a region rather than importing people in.

PAUL CULLIVER: [Talks over] Yeah, sure. What is the timeline for the Muswellbrook Bypass now?

CATHERINE KING: Yeah, again, that will be managed by the New South Wales government. But as I said, early works which are all of the earthworks, the movement of services, that will happen this year with the major construction to start early 2026.

PAUL CULLIVER: Okay. Well let’s talk about the Cessnock Bypass then. So, what’s the plan there?

CATHERINE KING: Yeah, so really this is planning money. So it’s to plan to work out what to do. Like, where would you put the bypass? How do you make sure you get the efficient movement of traffic? What’s the landscape like? How do you actually move people around? We know that there are significant housing developments slated for Cessnock. Again, people are discovering what a great place it is to live, but that brings challenges when it comes to infrastructure. So really this is planning money for New South Wales to then start the planning work to look at how do you actually plan for a bypass, where does it go, what does it look like? There’ll be a lot of community consultation along the process, a lot of engineers having a look at it. But really that’s the money that we’re announcing today.

There’s a number of key routes that lead right into Wollombi Road in the middle of Cessnock, and that population boom with surrounding suburbs and more traffic is making it pretty difficult for people. So really it’s looking to identify what were the alternate routes connecting those new housing developments in Bellbird and Cessnock South to those in the north, and then onward onto the Hunter Expressway – so what’s the best route for that, and how do you do that? That’s really what the money is for, to plan that.

PAUL CULLIVER: So obviously with population in the Hunter growing and growing and growing, getting people around is a pretty high priority. So I understand the need for more road infrastructure – although I’m sure there’s many that would say, why aren’t we also doing more to improve public transport links, rail links? Why is there not more money being spent on that aspect of getting people around the Hunter?

CATHERINE KING: Yeah, well, certainly in terms of the money that we are investing, a large proportion of it, you are right, is on that road infrastructure. Most people are still pretty reliant on their cars to get to work and to get to and from their homes to work. But certainly over time, those big public transport links, they are something that New South Wales Government obviously has looked at. We’re taking responsibility for trying to really get high speed rail up and running. We’ve invested substantially in that, and you’ll see some further work now that we’ve got the business case for that. You’ll see some further work now in the development stage of high speed rail. But really that is obviously Newcastle– from Newcastle, Central Coast into Sydney. But that is again looking at can people work from home more, how do we get bigger industries and bigger businesses into Newcastle and into the Hunter itself. So really there the investments that we make and then looking at further transport movements is really something we do in partnership with the New South Wales Government.

PAUL CULLIVER: Speaking of rail, of course, the business case for the high speed rail between Sydney to Newcastle, I understand, was given to the Government just before the end of last year, still waiting for an investment decision. What can you tell me about that?

CATHERINE KING: Yeah, well it’s with Infrastructure Australia at the moment. So, they will provide advice to government via Cabinet, via the budget process for when it’s ready for further investment. It will still need a development phase. That’s the next phase of work that will be recommended to us, which is again looking at that land acquisition, the finalising all of the geotechnical work and getting it ready for an investment decision. But we’ll make some announcements about that in due course, but Infrastructure Australia is looking at the business case at the moment.

PAUL CULLIVER: Okay, so Infrastructure Australia haven’t said to the Government yet– you haven’t been provided advice as to whether it’s a goer or not?

CATHERINE KING: They haven’t. That advice has not been provided to me yet, no.

PAUL CULLIVER: Okay. We’re one week away from the Federal Budget. Might we see something in that?

CATHERINE KING: Again, we’ll make investment decisions when we’ve got that advice. I’m not going to push Infrastructure Australia to how– the timeline of their job. They will– it’s a big piece of work, so they’ll be doing their analysis of it. They’ll provide advice to the Government, and then we’ll make our decisions about what the next phase of it will be. But really, it’s gone through the sort of exploratory stage. It will then have to go into the development stage, which again, is getting all of the planning approvals to do the work. And we’ll have some further announcements to make about that in due course.

PAUL CULLIVER: All right. We’re not too far away from a federal election. You’re not going to turn up in the Hunter during a federal election with the Prime Minister and say, we’re building high speed rail?

CATHERINE KING: Nice try, nice try. We’re very committed to high speed rail. And the Prime Minister has been talking about it for a long period of time. We’re serious about getting it done properly, making sure that we’ve got all of the information we need to be able to make those investment decisions. But also, if anything I’ve learnt from this job in the last three years in Inland Rail in particular, when you look at the report into Inland Rail, is don’t start making investment decisions when you don’t know how much it’s going to cost and you haven’t got that planning work done. So actually getting planning approvals will really be the next most important phase for high speed rail.

PAUL CULLIVER: All right, if I can just ask you about an idea that’s come from the Coalition – Peter Dutton has been talking about proposing a referendum to change the Constitution to allow the Government to deport dual citizens convicted of serious crimes. What do you think of this idea?

CATHERINE KING: I think it’s just yet another thought bubble from him. I don’t think he’s thought it through. When he wants to take the country to a referendum on decisions that– like, really? It just seems madness to me. I think it’s a thought bubble, and I reckon you’ll see him walk away– crab walk away from it in the next few days or so. It’s been a bit of a pattern from him. I think we’re supposed to also be having another referendum on indigenous representation as well, according to him, but he hasn’t said much about that. He’s promised we were going to do that as well. So let’s see, let’s see.

PAUL CULLIVER: You don’t think it’s a power that the Australian Government should have?

CATHERINE KING: I think it’s a thought bubble from Peter Dutton. I think that’s what it is.

PAUL CULLIVER: All right, Minister, thanks for your time today.

CATHERINE KING: Thanks very much.

PAUL CULLIVER: Catherine King, the Federal Minister for Infrastructure and Transport, in the region today to announce that the Muswellbrook Bypass is getting brought forward by about 12 months.