BRIDGET BRENNAN, HOST: The Federal Minister for Transport and Infrastructure, Catherine King, joins us now from Newcastle. Good morning Minister.

MINISTER FOR INFRASTRUCTURE, TRANSPORT, REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT CATHERINE KING: Good morning Bridget.

BRENNAN: If this project gets up, and I think a lot of people would concede it is a big if, how quickly could you get from Newcastle to Sydney?

KING: Well, we're releasing the business case today and now investing in a two-year development phase to do the design work, the really detailed design work, to then look at making a final investment decision. But the business case is from Newcastle to Sydney in an hour, from Gosford to Sydney in 30 minutes. These are 140 kilometres of track, 320 kilometres per hour capable trains. That is part of the business case for what we think is a really exciting economic opportunity, not just for Newcastle and New South Wales, but really for the whole country. As we see the powerhouse that the Hunter can be, as well as really trying to look at how we then, whilst we start from Newcastle to Sydney, then look at the development of this project beyond that.

BRENNAN: Yeah, it is, at the moment, I think two hours, 11 minutes or so. So a saving there of about an hour or more. Does it make sense? What does the business case say in terms of how much we'd have to invest into the line versus how much economic development and enhancement it would develop for that part of the country?

KING: Yep, so it's got a positive cost benefit ratio, which is really important. And then the more you build, the more the cost benefit ratio goes up. So it's got a positive BCR, as we call it. What it does is generate over $250 billion of economic activity, 99,000 jobs, potentially 160,000 homes throughout that region as well. And that really important economic activity, particularly for the Hunter, I think will is really very much part of the opportunity that High Speed Rail presents. Obviously, the more you build, the more that business case continues to stack up as you start to look at building beyond Sydney, out to Melbourne eventually and potentially up to Brisbane. But we're really taking this project very, very seriously. We are taking the time to get the development right, make sure we understand all of the costs. There's no doubt this is an expensive and big project, but what we've learned from both high speed rail overseas and from rail cases here in Australia, such as Inland Rail, a failed Coalition project, what we've learned from that is that you've got to get all of that design work done. You need to get the engineering right. You need to understand exactly what it is you're building, and that's what this development phase is doing, providing that opportunity to go metre by metre along this project and actually design it. So we've got a really good handle on all of the costs before we start to make that investment decision.

BRENNAN: What does the business cost tell you in terms of how much it would cost, because some reports say upwards of $90 billion? Is that right?

KING: So what the costs are for the Newcastle to Sydney stage is around $55 billion. That includes the stations, it includes an advanced manufacturing facility, and it includes all of the trains that would go on the line as well. So the actual cost of the infrastructure itself is around the $31 billion mark. But of course, you can't build a high speed rail without trains. So the business case includes actually building trains here in Australia, an advanced manufacturing facility, hopefully in Newcastle and potentially also in Western Sydney, and all of the rolling stock that goes on the train as well. We know, though, because of the size of the cost of this project, which is why we're really trying to take this development phase to get all of that information for us, is that this will require private sector investment as well. Government alone will not be able to fund this, so part of the development phase is to look for those private sector partners to also bring some of that private capital into investing in high speed rail.

BRENNAN: So putting aside that private capital, in terms of the government spend though, how do you pay for it in a very tight fiscal environment? And can you do it without the support of the New South Wales government, which at the moment, says it's not something it's committed to?

KING: What we need from the New South Wales Government, which they have already indicated their support for, is assistance with all of the planning work. There will be some land that we will require as well, as well as all of the environmental approvals works and assistance with their technical capabilities to also get, you know, if we're bringing it into Central, then that's going to be pretty important to have all of their technical expertise. We're expecting the New South Wales Government to help and work with us on that. Then in terms of the investment decision, that is obviously for down the track post this development phase, but we will be looking at private sector partners. We do have, already, $120 billion pipeline of infrastructure projects. We will start to look at building that into the pipeline as we get into those out years as well. But it is a really important project for Australia. It's a project that, you know, I think it’s time has come to bring High Speed Rail to Australia, working on that Newcastle to Sydney bit where we know the population density means that it stacks up, from a business case point of view.

BRENNAN: And Minister, for those wondering, “when can I jump on this fast train?”, when would it be finished? That’s a long way away, isn’t it?

KING: Yeah, look, you don't build something like this overnight. If you think about Western Sydney Airport, which is due to start this year, 12 years ago, when the Prime Minister was Infrastructure Minister, he started that early planning work then. And we're now, 12 years later, seeing this amazing airport start to come to fruition for the people of Western Sydney and for New South Wales. And really what this project is about is getting that early planning work done, getting this development work done. We've made that commitment to actually funding and doing that really detailed work, getting it ready for an investment decision in 2028 and hopefully then starting construction in 2029. But it's not a project that anyone can expect to be built overnight. It's a big, complex build, but one, we think, the economic opportunities for Australia are huge. $250 billion of economic opportunity for Australia out of this. 99,000 jobs. We think it's time High Speed Rail came to Australia.

BRENNAN: Let's move to another issue Minister, if we can. So the Prime Minister has told the British Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer, that Australia would agree to any proposal to remove Andrew Mountbatten Windsor from the line of royal succession. Are we expecting a response from the UK Government? And would you expect other Commonwealth countries to follow our lead?

KING: Yeah, well, I think the Prime Minister writing overnight to signal that early support should the UK take the decision to go down that route. Really, it's a matter for the UK to say that that's what they want to do, but it does require all 14 Commonwealth countries to also agree to that as well, and it would require legislation here in Australia. So we've signalled overnight that early support, if the UK does want to go down that pathway, that we think it's the right thing to do, and that they would have Australia's support to do that. So really, what other countries do will be a matter for them, but we thought it was important to signal that early support to take him out of the line of succession. We think there's enough in the public domain to really provide that support to the UK, should they take the decision to do that.

BRENNAN: Also today, the Royal Commission into Antisemitism and Social Cohesion begins its vast work towards the end of the year. This is a really, really tricky issue, and there are a lot of different views surrounding this issue as well that the Royal Commission will examine. Is it feasible that the work of this Commission can be done by the end of the year, given the complex nature of the debate?

KING: Look, I think yes, and I have, you know, a lot of confidence in the Royal Commissioner Virginia Bell to be able to do that. This is an issue that we take very, very seriously. It is both into antisemitism and social cohesion. I think everybody has seen a rise both in antisemitism, but also in real fracturing of people's relationships with each other, real issues around race, and these are complex and difficult issues. But I think what we want to see – we've already taken really significant action in relation to antisemitism. We're working on issues around race and social cohesion all the time, but I think out of the Royal Commission, what we really want to be able to do is say, as a country, how do we move forward to actually be a more civil, respectful country? Have those debates about issues we don't agree with, but really stop trying to divide people over issues, whether it's race, and starting to call out some of the things that I think are really causing significant grief to communities across the country. I have a lot of confidence in the Royal Commissioner to be able to come up with recommendations. At the end of the at the end of the day, it's going to be up to all of us, not just governments, to really work together to say, what is it that we think is important in Australia, and what are our values, and how do we want to live as a society together? That work is ongoing, and both the business of government, but the business of civil society, the business community, all of us Australians together, lifting that up and trying to deal with some pretty difficult and tough issues for a country to talk about.

BRENNAN: Catherine King, thanks for your time on News Breakfast this morning.

KING: Great to be with you.