FI POOLE, HOST:  Okay, so it's 2026. The region's biggest infrastructure promise in the last decade is going to be opened, hopefully at some point this year. The Coffs Harbour Bypass, very exciting. We're very excited. Catherine King, Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, is in town today. She's here for a tour of the works. Catherine, thanks for being with us. Good morning.

MINISTER FOR INFRASTRUCTURE, TRANSPORT, REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT CATHERINE KING: Good to be with you, Fi.

POOLE: Do we have a bypass opening date for commuters? Like, where are we?

KING: Well, the aim is to get it open by the Christmas holidays, obviously pending if there are any adverse weather events. That is the aim, Christmas holidays. We haven't got an opening date yet, but we're not too far away from being able to say when it will be open. But definitely Christmas holidays this year is what we're opening for. It's been long awaited. I was here in August last year when the tunnels were broken through. Now I'm here to have a look at the work of all the progress that's going on in the tunnels, all that infrastructure work, really getting all the electrics, the fans, all of the lighting, roads, all of that through. And I'm here with Minister Jenny Aitchison the New South Wales Minister for Roads. I think it's her first look for a little while as well. But progress well and truly being made on the Coffs Bypass.

POOLE: Yeah, those tunnels are complete now. You mentioned fans and electrics going in today. Are you confident that all workers were safe from dust exposure during that process?

KING: Well, obviously that is the expectation of every infrastructure project. There are requirements on the contractors to make sure that all of their workers are kept safe. There's legal obligations on employers to do so and I would expect that their legal obligations are met.

POOLE: And what's left to be done? Like once the fans and the electrics are in on the tunnels, what's left? I mean, we've got another eight months, don't we?

KING: Yeah, so obviously all the road paving through the tunnels has to be done. That takes a little while to settle, so that takes some time to get through. Obviously all of the testing to ensure that the systems within the tunnels are done as well, but they're the main big pieces of work. Sort of think about it, if you're building a house, it's that lock-up stage and it's all the internals that now have to be done.

POOLE: Let's turn our to Waterfall Way and the landslip that caused the road to close on the 19th of January. We have a community at the moment which I'm sure you're aware of which feels like they've been left stranded at the top of the plateau. There's businesses, there's farmers that are struggling. And what we heard yesterday at community meetings is that some of those initial effects of the, you know, the lack of business and not having any tourism up there is really now starting to compound. And there's a lot of senior people in particular who are feeling isolated, not able to make it down the mountain in their small cars. Now, these are exceptional circumstances for this community. It's been flood after flood, rain event after rain event. It's compromised their main road. Under these exceptional circumstances, I mean, could you declare a Category D funding to release some sort of financial support to the community of Dorrigo?

KING: Yeah, well, look, that'll be a matter for both the New South Wales Government and our Emergency Services Minister. We'll do that at the request of the New South Wales Government. But as I understand it, in terms of the road access itself, what's happening at the moment is that New South Wales Roads is doing the assessment of the roads. We're trying to get an understanding of what the short-term fix is. Obviously, these land slopes can be very dangerous and you don't to open too quickly if the soil is still not stable. But they're doing that assessment at the moment and we're trying to get as much information as we can to get the road open. I think that, you know, There’s been a number of these happen across the country. We do the work to try and get them done as quickly as we can. But obviously, we also need to make sure there's a longer term fix in terms of that as well. I'm happy I'll have a chat to our Emergency Management Minister just to see where that's up to. But that request would need to come from the New South Wales government to the Commonwealth first.

POOLE: Now, a flood could potentially isolate a community for a week, maybe two, but this a community that's going to be potentially isolated, you know, for a lot of them who don't have the right vehicles to travel along the alternate route for way longer than that, you know, who are trying to get stock down the mountain and out. You know, this is going to have ongoing impacts. Is there any financial support, a package that the federal government can put together to support business and farmers on the plateau?

KING: Well, certainly, again, any requests for disaster assistance, the New South Wales government will need to bring that forward and we will look at that as we do under the disaster recovery arrangements if that's been the cause of the incident. Trying to get that road reopened as quickly as we can. We've had a number of these, I was involved, one of the biggest ones we had was in Western Australia with the Fitzroy Crossing that was completely shut off. All goods and services going into the top end of Western Australia and that was a very big fix that had to be done there. But as I understand it Transport NSW are doing the assessments at the moment and trying to look at how we can get the road open as quickly as possible, but then of course what you want to try and do is build it back as resiliently as you can. In terms of sort of local disaster assistance payments that's really a matter for the NSW Government to bring forward to the Commonwealth and I'm sure we'd consider that if that was the case.

POOLE: Okay, so the State Government has not at this point made a request for Cat D funding?

KING: As far as I know but I'm not the Emergency Services Minister you'd need to ask that question of her and I'll go and check.

POOLE: Okay terrific. Catherine King Transport Minister, Federal Transport Minister joining us this morning. Now a long-term fix of Waterfall Way is going to take a lot of money. It's one of the prettiest drives in New South Wales There's a project of state significance at the top in the Rainforest Centre and a four-day multi-hike walk that they think is going to add millions of trips onto the mountain. What sort of assistance is the federal government offering for that long-term fix?

KING: So what we do is we, the New South Wales Government bring forward priority projects in the budget. They will come to us with what projects they'd like to see the Commonwealth co-invest in and we consider those as part of the budget process. So if there's a request, again, from the New South Wales Government for co-investment from the Commonwealth, we will certainly have a look at that. There's a lot of asks. I have billions and billions of dollars of asks every single year from states and territories. There's not always enough money to do every single project, so we've got to make assessments about those. Big projects have to have assessments undertaken by Infrastructure Australia first, so anything over $250 million will need to go through Infrastructure Australia I don't think that project has gone through Infrastructure Australia as far as I know. But again, it will really be a matter for the New South Wales government to come and talk to us about what their priorities are and then we'll look at it in the budget process.

POOLE: Sounds like you and Jenny are going to have a good chat today. Might be a long lunch.

KING: We always do. No, it won't be a long lunch. It’ll be a quick coffee before we head to Coffs.

POOLE: Okay.

KING: But the investment we've made in the region already, a $2.2 billion project in the Coffs Harbour Bypass is a pretty significant investment. We've had to make sure to keep the project on track and keep that budget going. We're all under budget constraints at the moment and trying to do as many of these infrastructure projects as we can. COVID certainly saw a lot of cost escalation as well. So we're working our way through all of those and always have good relations with the state Ministers in order to try and bring those projects to fruition.

POOLE: Well, we couldn't be more excited about the bypass. There's no doubt about that. Let's just have a quick chat about aviation now. There's currently an inquiry into regional airfares. We on the Coffs Coast and in Port Macquarie out of our airports, we're paying like double what everyone else is paying, you know, for a flight to Melbourne or a flight to Sydney. It just doesn't seem fair. What can be done about it?

KING: So I think since we last spoke in August about this issue, two things have happened. One, we've managed to find a buyer for Rex Airlines. That airline was in danger of collapse and basically not being able to proceed. And that was pretty significant in my view. Having at least some competition on those regional routes certainly does help with pricing. So that's the first thing. I've met with the new owners, Air T, they're out of the States. They're a long-term aviation company, really excited about being part of the Australian aviation market. They're going to work hard to really make sure, stabilise the business first, bring it back to profitability, and then hopefully we see some expansion of routes and expansion of their business model here in Australia. But they are absolutely concentrating on what they do best, and that's regional aviation, and I'm really pleased that. The Productivity Commission, at my request, and the Treasurer, is now looking at regional airfares and to see what the sort of cost differentials are and whether there are any costs that are inflated that basically should be or could be taken out. And that work's continuing. I think submissions have gone in from Councils across the country and we'll look at that work. Also, we've got a number of state and territory governments. So intrastate travel is really a responsibility of the states. A number of state governments do cap the costs of regional airfares in different locations. They've been doing that for a long time right the way across the country. The Productivity Commission will look at that and the role that the states play in that intrastate connectivity as well.

POOLE: Capping airfares, gee, I hadn't thought of that one before.

KING: Yeah, there are some states that do.

POOLE: Really?

KING: They've introduced caps in place for certain flights.

POOLE: Okay, does it have to be a mining town though?

KING: It tends to be, I must admit it tends to be a little bit, but it's not all of those. There's some regional centres. So states generally have subsidised that. It happens in, certainly in Queensland and in Western Australia as well.

POOLE: Okay. Catherine King, thanks for your time. Hope you enjoy the tour of the bypass today.

KING: I will do. I don't know if it's going to rain. I haven't seen yet what the weather forecast is like, but I'm sure you'll get to that.

POOLE: Yeah, absolutely. It looks like it could, but it also may hold off. So I don't know. I'd bring a brolly just in case.

KING: I will do. Thanks, Fi.

POOLE: Catherine King, Transport Minister, joining us there. She is also the Minister for Infrastructure and Regional Development, and she'll be in town in Coffs Harbour today for a tour of the Coffs Harbour Bypass.