ABC Radio Melbourne, Mornings with Rafael Epstein

RAFAEL EPSTEIN: I mentioned that extra money from the Federal Government for airport rail. Does that mean we will actually get airport rail? Catherine King is the Infrastructure Minister. She is the MP in Ballarat as well. Morning, Minister.

CATHERINE KING: Good morning. It's great that you're out at St Albans. It's a beautiful part of the world.

RAFAEL EPSTEIN: I haven't yet sampled all the food. I've been to the market, I'm impressed. I'm going to go back there. An extra $2 billion from your government. Does this mean airport rail actually will happen?

CATHERINE KING: Yes, it does. What this money does, if you remember a year ago, we got a mediator to come in and say, what are the things we can do now to unlock airport rail? And there were three things that were recommended. The first was that the airport, if it wanted to have the station underground, it needed to do the work. That meant the station then said, suddenly said, we don't want it to go underground, we're going to go overground. So that's good. That's been settled. He then said that we needed to redo the modelling for the Tullamarine Freeway-that's about to start. And it then said we need to invest and build the Sunshine Precinct, which really is making Sunshine Station, pretty much the Southern Cross of the west. So a really big transport hub that is the centre of rail coming in. And then you build the SRL line out to the airport. So what we're doing is unlocking the 5 billion that's already on the table. And then we've put 2 billion in to get that Sunshine Precinct started. The Victorians are on board with us. You've seen Melbourne Airport yesterday, working constructively with us. We've got a little way to go just in terms of settling some of the stuff with the airport. But I am very confident that this will now happen.

RAFAEL EPSTEIN: Okay. I think the devil in the detail might be a little way to go with the airport. Is the airport the problem?

CATHERINE KING: I think that we've still got to work through issues about- obviously, the airport leases its land from the Commonwealth. It's got a lease that allows it to have quiet an enjoyment of its leasehold. And so it will come to us and obviously seek an understanding of what the impact is going to be …

RAFAEL EPSTEIN: [Talks over] They want money, don't they?

CATHERINE KING: … But- they may well do. But again, that is, I understand that they are now talking very closely with the Victorian Government. We'll also come to the, come in and talk with them as well and let you know. My view is we're all on the same page to try and get this settled. Obviously there's, as I said, a little way to go just in terms of the detail of that, but everyone is on the same page of saying, we want to get this done. We're keen to get it done. Let's try and break the deadlock as best we can. I know my department secretary and the Victorian department new transport secretary, Jeroen, have been talking over the last couple of days. I think they're both pretty determined people. And we want to get this done. It's time for Melbourne to have an airport rail.

RAFAEL EPSTEIN: Yes. It was described as the train line to the jetport in the Victorian Parliament in 1965. So that's six years before I was born. But you just- you're the minister federally responsible for this. You used the word deadlock. Are you sure the deadlock is going to be unlocked?

CATHERINE KING: We're going to do everything we can. I know the airport wants that to happen. Victorian government does, as does the Federal Government. So when you've got will and I think we've got a moment in time to get this done now, given that we've got all three parties very keen to get this done, we've got a, moment in time and that's going to be up to all of us to do the work, because I think Victorians are a bit sick of the wait, the long wait. I'm a little bit older than you, so I also know how long this has been on Victoria's books, and we've got a moment in time to really get this done. And I'm very determined that we should do it.

RAFAEL EPSTEIN: Brimbank Council, and that's St Albans council. They want the rail line to come before the third runway. So that's been approved, the third runway. Do you think we will get a rail line before the third runway is built?

CATHERINE KING: Well, the first thing is I've just got to be a bit careful here because I have approved as the minister for planning for the airport, the third runway. And Brimbank has now taken that to the- to appeal. So I just have to be a bit careful here. The airport is wanting to build the third runway. I have approved that. It now has to go through the appeal process. They'll be responsible for building that. My view is we are responsible as transport ministers-Victorian government, Federal government in terms of getting airport rail done. And we are starting the work to make sure that we've got everyone on the same page in terms of where it's going to finish at the airport. And we'll have timelines when we've got all of that agreed, and we'll make those public when we can.

RAFAEL EPSTEIN: It's about 18 minutes to 9 on 774. Catherine King is part of Anthony Albanese's Labor government. I do want to know what you want from your politicians. You can text or call. If you're texting in, by the way, text your say, we'll send you a link. There's a whole lot of stuff going on the ABC webpage about the impending federal election. Catherine King, as a minister in and part of a Labor Party that's vying for re-election, there was two and a bit billion for the airport. There was more than a billion for roads. I think there was another 300 million for rail work around Melton. Would that money have come if there hadn't been a big protest vote against state Labor in Werribee?

CATHERINE KING: No, it was in planning for quite some time. Danny Pearson, the previous minister and I had been talking about, as we do every budget cycle… what are the investments that are needed? And these have been talked about for a while. So I think it …

RAFAEL EPSTEIN: [Talks over] It does look a bit reactive.

CATHERINE KING: Well, it- that's your call, to say that. But I can absolutely guarantee, what I do when I look at budgets, when I look at the investments that are needed, I work closely with state governments about where they want to see investment. And this has been in discussion literally since the middle of last year. So that happens every budget cycle. The Victorian and every other government in the country all come to me with their wish list. It's often, billions of dollars over what we can fund because they all want money. And then we make a decision about what we're going to invest in. So really, this- these decisions are actually made last year that we're announcing now as part of our budget, our lead up into the budget cycle. And they're important investments for the state. But what you've also seen us do is unlock over in the east, the $2.2 billion for the Suburban Rail Loop.

RAFAEL EPSTEIN: I'm glad you mentioned it, minister, because I was going to ask you about that. Can I just- can I let everyone know the seat I'm in is a safe Labor seat – the seat of Fraser. There are- I know there are people who share your party room, Catherine King, who are nervous about Labor's vote in a suburb like St Albans, all the way out to places like Melton. Is there a little part of you- is there a little part of you that dies every time they talk about the Suburban Rail Loop because it's money in the east, not the west?

CATHERINE KING: What I see is a state in Victoria who basically… were pretty much abandoned for the last decade, who've had to go it alone on building these really big infrastructure projects. I live in the west, I live in Ballarat, and I have to drive- you know every single day I go to- when I go to Melbourne, I'm going through that incredible work that's been done on the West Gate Tunnel. That is game changing for us over in the west. That will be huge for people like myself who live in Ballarat. I see the North East Link. I've stood on that side as well. Both of those projects, not a single federal dollar has gone into either of those. The state has had to 100 per cent fund those. We've stepped in other- sorry, other than a small amount in the North East Link, we've had- we've stepped in and put some more money into the North East Link to bring that, recognising that Victorian taxpayers on their own are paying for these big projects that will be game changing for the way in which we move around the state. Suburban Rail will be a similar sort of project. It's a big scale project I've seen over in the west of the- Western Australia. What these big scale rail projects can do in terms of really opening up new housing opportunities, new business opportunities, new ways in which people actually move around cities. And so that's really what the Victorian government has been doing, is doing those investments pretty much on its own. And it's time that the Commonwealth actually helped out a bit with those.

RAFAEL EPSTEIN: Well, we'll see what everybody makes of that both the people here in St Albans and on the phone. Just- Peter Dutton, it's been revealed how much money he's made buying and selling properties. Doesn't that mean he actually really understands the property market and maybe he'll know how to fix it?

CATHERINE KING: Well, I think the issue- it's not so much- I don't begrudge anyone being able to do that, but I think it's being upfront about it. I think that we saw him, not necessarily make disclosures about that and money in trusts and the like. So I think really he just needs to be open about that. And, it's aspirational. But it's really- it's up to him to sort of explain why these weren't properly disclosed to people …

RAFAEL EPSTEIN: [Interrupts] But do you reckon he understands the property market?

CATHERINE KING: Well, as someone who doesn't understand the property market, particularly myself, I don't know. That's a matter for him. But I think that again, really, it's up to him to make sure he's disclosing all of those things appropriately.

RAFAEL EPSTEIN: Thank you for your time.

CATHERINE KING: Really good to be with you. Lovely to- hopefully you get a good chance to have a chat to the people of St Albans. My brother in law doesn't live far from there. It is a fantastic multicultural part of the world.