Transcript - ABC Radio Newcastle

KIA HANDLEY [HOST]: High-speed rail on the Australian East Coast, it might be something that you’re excited about, but do you think it’s something you’ll see in your lifetime? Yesterday the Federal Government’s High Speed Rail Authority officially started its work of overseeing the planning and development of a fast rail network, which includes an important stretch between Newcastle and Sydney. So let’s learn where it’s all up to, and how this will all play out.

Catherine King is Federal Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government. Minister, good afternoon.

CATHERINE KING [MINISTER]: Hi Kia, it’s nice to be with you.

KIA HANDLEY: We will talk high-speed rail, but just before we get into it, you know, here in The Hunter, our emotions are very raw after Sunday night’s bus crash. What’s happening at the Federal level following that event?

CATHERINE KING: Yeah, well, I guess the first thing is just my – you know, I’m so sorry that that has happened, it’s just the most awful thing that anybody could possibly imagine happening, and I know that it’s going to have long– lasting effects in the community. Yesterday, the Parliament is sitting at the moment, paused, we saw speeches from the Prime Minister, the Leader of the Opposition, and of course the Member for Hunter, Dan. He’s a big fellow, you don’t see him tear up very often, but he was pretty emotional in the House yesterday. And I know, again, the Premier, Chris Minns, has been down there, you’ve had Health Minister, Emergency Services Ministers, and I just want to say to the community our hearts go out to you.

There’s a long road ahead in terms of the recovery, understanding what’s happened. I want to thank first responders, and I know many, personally in my electorate, I’ve been a member of a fire brigade before, and I know just the incredible effect that this has, and I think Dan Repacholi said it pretty well, I think he popped it up on Facebook, “It is okay not to be okay.” This is an extraordinary event. So please reach out for help. Don’t try and manage on your own.

It’s often, particularly emergency responders are pretty stoic about this stuff, but it is actually okay not to be okay, this is a big event. And I think, you know, in the days and weeks to come there will be the investigation, and we’ll hear a bit more about what happened, and obviously legal proceedings as well. So that’s, you know, where we’re at, the same, you know, as everybody else in the community, pretty shocked by what’s occurred.

KIA HANDLEY: Let’s focus on high-speed rail. It’s something that we feel like we’ve been talking about for a very long time here in The Hunter. We’ve seen plans, we have seen feasibility studies on feasibility studies. We now have this new High Speed Rail Authority. What is the aim of this group of people that you have brought together, Minister?

CATHERINE KING: So the last time there was sort of any concerted effort on high-speed rail was when the Prime Minister was Infrastructure Minister over a decade ago. There was a significant business case done into the feasibility of high-speed rail, and the work sort of started to chip away of getting that, and obviously we haven’t seen really any commitment to that over the last decade. Almost over a year ago now the Prime Minister and I came to Newcastle and made the announcement that we’re establishing the High Speed Rail Authority, I’ve put 500 million on the table to start the work, the high-speed rail.

What we’re doing– so the new Board’s been appointed, Jill Rossouw’s the Chair of that, we’re got an acting CEO, doing the recruitment process for the CEO themselves, but the most important work that this Authority is going to do to start with is actually start doing the detailed planning work for high-speed rail, and that means making sure we get all of the planning authority for the high-speed rail corridor done.

If we’ve learnt any lessons from Inland Rail, it’s that if you don’t do that planning work, if you don’t get that governance and that structure right, then the project will go – pardon the pun – off the rails really quickly. So that whole sort of detailed planning work, making sure we’ve got land acquisitions in place, understanding the engineering, working with the local communities.

So the first little while, we are going to see, you know– you’re not going to suddenly see us digging and doing actually rail work, but what you’re going to see is that really detailed work about how to actually get this thing to happen. We’re very determined to see it; we’re determined to be the Government that does start this project, so I want to get the planning right first. So that’s what you’re going to see, but we had to get the legislation, we had to get an authority in place, and that’s what’s started, and they’ve started that work as of yesterday.

KIA HANDLEY: When we’re talking about these corridors, especially if we’re focuses on Newcastle to Sydney, because that is obviously, you know, the one that’s going to affect us most here in The Hunter, what needs to happen to make sure that the right parcels of land are put aside, because this is long– term vision. This may not be, you know, in – well, definitely won’t be in this Government. It may not be in the next, you know, one or two either. So like how do we make sure that this is long– term planning of the likes that is quite challenging in the current political climate?

CATHERINE KING: Yeah, absolutely. I mean the first thing is to actually get the corridor planned as a whole, so getting that through with the New South Wales Government, working with them to actually – and the Federal Environment Minister – to actually get a planning corridor, and so making sure that we actually have an entire project planned out. As I said, one of the problems with Inland Rail is we didn’t actually know where it was going to start or finish. The previous Government just sort of started building it, and thought they could work that out later, and that’s seen the costs of that project blow out substantially, and the timeframes blow out.

So really it’s about getting all of that planning stuff, and that takes time; it’s a long legal process, and there will be lots of work we’ll have to do with the community along the way, and obviously land acquisitions is going to be very much part of that.

KIA HANDLEY: What are the challenges? We’ve heard, you know, in the past that the landscape from here to Sydney is a challenge. Do you expect that there will be more challenges that pop up along the way?

CATHERINE KING: Oh, look, absolutely. The landscape’s challenging, you’ve got you know, a beautiful national park, you’ve got a lot there. But what we also know is you’ve got an existing rail corridor, you’ve got people who are already, you know, a large population who are commuting for work along that corridor every single day, you’ve got a large population that’s paying substantial tolls to get into Sydney. This is, you know, we think financially probably the most viable route in the country is really that Newcastle via Central Coast to Sydney, and that’s really where we want to be able to prove that we can do it. 

Now, other countries have done it. We’re way behind where other countries are. You know, they’ve solved pretty complex and tricky engineering problems. We’ll be looking to many of them to assist us in that process as well, and that’s one of the things the High Speed Rail Authority also needs to do, is really make sure we’ve got the financing mechanisms right, and that we’ve got the right partners when it comes to construction, which again will take a little time, but that’s really their job, and it’s their sole job, is to actually get this project delivered.

KIA HANDLEY: And then how fast is fast when we’re talking high speed rather than the fast rail that we see in other parts of the world?

CATHERINE KING: So high-speed rail is anything over 250 kilometres. So that’s what we’re talking about with this project.

KIA HANDLEY: Okay. That sounds fast.

CATHERINE KING: Its fast, you know, depends, there’s between that 250, you know, if you look at some of the trains in Japan, if anyone’s been on those – it’s a long time since I have – they go really fast.

KIA HANDLEY: They also go very straight, which is where we get –

CATHERINE KING: They do.

KIA HANDLEY: – some of the issues here for our fast rail.

CATHERINE KING: This can be true, so all of that, and I’m not an engineer, I don’t want to pretend to be, but you know, they are, you know, like I don’t want to pretend – this is a big project, like this is – but I think that if we’re going to do it, we have to start, and we have to start to actually get that planning and put all of the steps in place to actually deliver this project, and I think we’re really determined to do that. I hope to be around, well and truly, I’m nearly in my 60s, so I hope well and truly to be around to actually travel on it, and that’s – I’m determined to start the process, so that this actually does get delivered in this country.

It’s really, I think, a great opportunity, particularly for Newcastle and Sydney, to really show the country, you know, what we can do, and what’s possible when you’ve got such great cities being able to connect them in this way with high-speed rail, and as I said, other countries have had high-speed rail for a long period of time. I think it’s time for Australia to do so.

KIA HANDLEY: I wouldn’t be a Hunter resident planning a trip to Sydney on the weekend without asking, you know, timeline?

CATHERINE KING: Yeah, of course I’d like to build it tomorrow, but again – 

KIA HANDLEY: Thank you, Minister says tomorrow.

CATHERINE KING: [laughs] Exactly. But the lesson we’ve learnt, obviously, from Inland Rail, is let’s get, you know, get the planning right, get the detailed design right, get the engineering right before you start letting tenders for projects. Everyone gets pretty excited about, you know, we’re pretty good [indistinct] wanting to cut a ribbon and dig a sod and do all of that.

KIA HANDLEY: I’m not going to mention Utopia, but it has been mentioned a lot with this project, Minister.

CATHERINE KING: It has, it has, it definitely, definitely has. My husband was watching it the other day with some amusement and reminding me of that, but you know, that’s really what we’ve got to do. If we’re actually going to deliver this, you’ve actually got to do that detailed planning work first and get that done properly, and that is going to take time. I don’t want to pretend that we’re going to be digging sod tomorrow, I’m sure we’d all be liking to do that, but I think it’s better that we take it steady, purposeful work, make sure we’ve got all the – everything ticked off beforehand and then start to deliver this project when we know all of that is in place.

KIA HANDLEY: Are there tools in the current Government’s pocket to make sure that it continues no matter what happens next term and the term after that?

CATHERINE KING: Well, the Authority is legislated, so it would require an Act of Parliament to get rid of it, so the Authority is there, the purpose is there, but of course, you know, if we lose Government, which I’m hoping we don’t do for a very, very, very long time, you know, it will be up to an incoming Government to make sure that they continue with this project, but we’re very determined as a Labor Government, you know, we started the process when we were last in office; we’re pretty determined to proceed with it.

KIA HANDLEY: Minister, appreciate the update this afternoon. Thank you.

CATHERINE KING: Really good to be with you. And take care, everybody, I know it’s a really awful time for everybody out there.

KIA HANDLEY: That is Catherine King, Federal Minister for Infrastructure, transport, Regional Development and Local Government, on Day 2 of the High Speed Rail Authority on the job. Going to see a lot more investigation first, but that $500 million commitment already. As the Minister was saying, that Authority is legislated now, working towards that high-speed rail in Australia with a focus initially on that Sydney to Newcastle corridor. You might have thoughts.