PAUL KARP: Thanks very much for your speech, Minister. You spoke about decisions that you made when coming to government, responding to an unsustainable infrastructure pipeline, and the Infrastructure Australia Market Capacity report shows the value of that pipeline is up $29 billion, the first increase since 2022 to $242 billion. So, is that now sustainable or do you think that you could be looking at more re-profiling, cancelling, or delaying of projects?

CATHERINE KING: Yes, so from what we needed to do when we came to government, it was very clear, and the review showed this, that if we were to deliver every single project in the pipeline that was there that the Commonwealth was co-investing in, it would require an additional $33 billion of Commonwealth investment, and that was just Commonwealth investment. It would require more money from state governments and also local governments because some of those projects were there. So we did take really hard decisions to say look, we don't think at this point in time we can proceed with particularly projects where it was evident there was only a small amount provisioned in the budget for those and that we would require further money to put in, and we worked with states and territories on that, some more collaboratively than others but that's what we did.

There is obviously the ability if states are not willing or not able to proceed with projects, there are projects that have been sitting on the pipeline for quite some time that we are talking to states about continuously about when is the delivery timeframes for those. There's obviously an opportunity for states and territories to do that, but we think we've got the pipeline pretty right at the moment, but if states wish to come forward with projects that they want to push out a bit or that they want to say that they're not able to deliver any further, that would really be a matter for them. And the new federated funding agreement provides a provision for them to be able to do that which wasn't there before.

PAUL KARP: And the report talks about labour shortages worsening from 140,000 to 300,000 by 2027. It obviously takes time to train people and the politics of migration are very difficult for the government at the moment. So how are you going to fix that?

CATHERINE KING: Well, there's a lot of work being done. So obviously Jobs and Skills Australia are key to this. We've done, obviously, a lot of work. Free TAFE is a huge, huge investment in training that pipeline for the future. Thousands of Australians have taken up that opportunity. What we also need to do is ensure that pipeline of apprentices then follows and works closely with Free TAFE. So again, the $10,000 investment we're making in apprentices to really try and get apprentices to stay. It's one of the issues that we often have is young people start an apprentice but don't necessarily stick with that apprentice right the way through. So that investment's really important.

And obviously the work Jobs and Skills Australia is doing also with states and territories around what are the skills needs and the skills mix in terms of our migration program, that was so important. So it's got to be both. We can't just have migration as the answer. We have to do both. We've got to train the next generation up as well as look at the migration program, which we're doing.

PAUL KARP: And there are other cost pressures, industrial relations, you mentioned poor culture in your speech, energy costs, planning, red tape. Will it ever get cheaper to build?

CATHERINE KING: Well, certainly our view is that there are improvements that we can make. And those improvements, obviously, you've seen going through the House of Representatives, passed the environmental laws just last week. They will now go to the Senate. I know you've got Senator McKenzie coming. You can ask her what she intends to do on those. They are really critical I think to both getting that balance right between getting approvals done more quickly and getting more certainty into those environmental approvals in a more timely fashion. At the same time as doing what they are designed to do, in essence they are planning laws that are designed to also ensure that we protect the environment. So they are pretty critical and they will be sitting in the Senate ready for debate and we hope to get them passed by the end of this year, but that's really, we’re in the hands of the Senate on that.

PAUL KARP: I have some questions about a few individual projects. The Suburban Rail Loop, there are concerns that the first section of that could cost closer to $50 billion and that value capture can't deliver its third that it's supposed to contribute. Is the federal government really going to throw at least $9 billion of good money after the bad money that the Victorian government is investing in?

CATHERINE KING: So we've invested in the early work, so we've put $2.2 billion in that and that now has been released. This project, again, I think the contracts are being signed. So the project is proceeding, so the East Suburban Rail Loop is proceeding. Contracts are being signed for the tunnelling shortly. I think that work is well under underway. This is a project that is happening. We view it very clearly. If you look at what METRONET is doing and will do for the future of Perth, Suburban Rail Loop has to be seen in that same way. The state's not just building a transport connectivity piece, and I grew up in these suburbs, so I know them well. I know how hard it was for me living in the suburb of Syndal to get to Monash University Library without a car. This actually changes that. It actually means you can connect across and around the city in a different way.

But what it also will do is make new hubs for housing, for commercial industry, as well as really changing the way people live in the city. And Melbourne can't continue just to keep growing out and out, and really this is what Suburban Rail Loop is looking at, is how do you change that.

So we'll make decisions in the upcoming budget about what our next investment will be in Suburban Rail Loop. But it would be fair to say this is a project that is starting, it's underway, and it is something the Commonwealth has an interest in.

PAUL KARP: It sounds like signing contracts is the best way to force the government's hand. The Albanese Government-

CATHERINE KING: Not always.

PAUL KARP: The Albanese Government allocated $500 million for planning for high-speed rail to Newcastle. You were very bullish on that in your speech. Is that project just a matter of when, not if? And are you sort of boxing yourself in before the full cost and business case?

CATHERINE KING: Yes, so we're very determined, but if anything that I have learned from the Schott review into Inland Rail, you know, if you ever want to look at an infrastructure project that, frankly, you just couldn't- you can pick it apart and look at multiple layers of it and realise where it went wrong, and trying to get that back, it's part of the planning on track, has been really challenging. But you know, you don’t start a project not knowing where it's going to start and finish, without planning approvals, without product costings, all of that. So we've learned a lot from that. And Kerry Schott, who, I want to be her when I grow up, I think we all do, did an amazing job on that report.

So really we've learned the lessons from that. So the next phase is really a two-year development phase, which will require all of the geotech work, all of the design work to be done, planning approvals to be progressed, land acquisition obviously, but really getting all of that detailed work done before the government makes a final investment decision. Now, the cost of this will be something government will not be able to do on their own. We will have to have a new financing mechanism to look at how we can engage the private sector in that and that again is part of the work over the course of the next two years. But we won't be making a final investment decision and you shouldn't expect us to until we've actually done all of that work, and we want to do it properly and that's really what the two-year development phase is about.

PAUL KARP: I wanted to ask about the Port of Darwin sale. Can that be achieved by agreement, or when will the government make a decision about whether that requires a forced sale?

CATHERINE KING: So we are in discussions with Landbridge at the moment. They are fairly sensitive discussions so I'm really constrained about what I can say, but when we've got something to say, you will all be the first to know.

PAUL KARP: Not even a timeframe?

CATHERINE KING: Not at this stage, no.

PAUL KARP: The fatal Triple Zero outage by Optus has had a renewed focus on critical infrastructure. Now, you're going to have a new cop on the beat, but will this episode prompt any reconsideration by the government about Australian ownership of telcos?

CATHERINE KING: Well, I think that certainly Tony Burke is doing a strong piece of work, obviously, around cyber security and critical infrastructure, and that I think the Horizon 2 program is underway or under work at the moment. So that is really important, so understanding what is critical infrastructure in Australia and how do we protect it. I don't think we always necessarily need to own it, but we actually need to make sure it works for the Australian public. And I think the Triple Zero case is certainly a case where the operators have to understand what it is that they are operating. This isn't just about a business, this is actually a critical piece of service that you are providing to the Australian public, and the government is determined that is what this system is and that is how it's viewed and how it is regulated and dealt with.

PAUL KARP: On Western Sydney International Airport, when are letters of intent going to crystallise into agreements with the airlines? Should people in Western Sydney looking forward to a Bali holiday be sort of sweating on the fact that they haven't been inked yet?

CATHERINE KING: Yeah, so I think you've got Simon here as well, I think speaking. I'm sure he'll be happy to talk to you about it at some stage, but we've already obviously got Jetstar, Qantas, Singapore and Air New Zealand who've reached agreement. Each of those will develop their schedules. We're not in that season yet. They'll start to develop their schedules for ticketing. The airport I know is in discussions with a range of other airlines as well and we'd expect to see some of those starting to happen in the near future.

PAUL KARP: There's a lot of competing demands, housing, energy transition, digital economy, data centres. On Slido we also have from Adrian McCarthy asking if water infrastructure is a priority. How is the government prioritising those different ... 

CATHERINE KING: Yeah, so I have responsibility for land transport infrastructure, so that is really the part of the portfolio of infrastructure that I look after. Obviously, energy and energy transition sits with Chris Bowen, and I requested of the Prime Minister in the last term of government, it didn't make sense to me that you would have a water minister that also didn't have water infrastructure. So water infrastructure was moved, it was in my portfolio, because the Nats quite like having it- it was in my portfolio and we actually moved it, we changed the administrative orders and moved it into the water and environment portfolio. So it sits there, and then obviously there is housing as well. All of those Infrastructure Australia provides advice on, and it would be fair to say even they are probably more mature in the advice they provide to me as Land Transport Minister, and they're working to develop more of that advice into the other portfolio ministers that also develop infrastructure.

But I think what you're seeing is that market capacity report really providing us with the tools to be able to think more strategically, and we’re often very bogged down as ministers into the fine detail, but it provides that strategic opportunity for us to really understand how we can actually affect policy overall. So it's incredibly helpful work.

PAUL KARP: Now you've already used Inland Rail as an example of what not to do. Would it be fair to say that all of those priorities like the energy transition and data centres are sort of pushing down the relative priority of some of these Coalition-era decisions like Inland Rail or more intermodals?

CATHERINE KING: No, because we have a really big freight task, and we don't have an integrated freight network in Australia, and we really, really need one. It's really important. So Inland Rail is part of that. Again, what the Schott report really very clearly said to us is, look, prioritise getting it to Parkes, we're doing a sod turn on Beveridge, is about to happen in the not-too-distant future, just waiting final sign-off on that. Parkes, we're investigating through the National Intermodal Corporation, an intermodal terminal at Parkes. But really it said prioritise it to Parkes because then you can start to get a return on investment, so getting that east-west, getting it into Newcastle, and that's really what the first part will do. All of the planning work has been undertaken now for the next phases of Inland Rail, so the Queensland Government has that before it as well and we look forward to seeing that. There's work that's been done under the Schott report also about just getting a real angle on the costs, again while the government then makes, well, where are the next investment decisions we need to make along that pipeline to get that project to happen.

PAUL KARP: And another one from Slido from Gareth Williamson. Minister, you mentioned in your remarks about South East Queensland in particular, the strain on developing infrastructure. Can you share some thoughts about this region and your level of comfort about delivering an Olympics in a region already straining to get ahead on infrastructure? 

CATHERINE KING: So we're investing $3.5 billion in Olympics infrastructure. I have that sitting within my portfolio as well. I think it is going to be incredible. I think Brisbane Olympics- I know Queenslanders think it's Queensland’s Olympics. It's Brisbane, Queensland Australia, so we're showcasing all of those amazing parts of our country. And it will be up to the Queensland Government and the Delivery Authority to really keep that program on track. I am confident they can do it, but I think it is going to be a big level of infrastructure investment in Queensland. They've got a lot of work to do to really get that delivery done, but there are a lot of people moving up to Queensland all in anticipation of getting jobs in all of these projects right the way across the Queensland community, so I hope that work is done well. My job will be to make sure the Commonwealth's investment delivers value for money.

PAUL KARP: Premier Chris Minns did a community cabinet town hall in Camden the other day and sort of bashed the feds both for the 86 cents in a dollar GST share, but also New South Wales having 33 per cent of the population but 24 per cent of the federal infrastructure budget. Is New South Wales being shortchanged or do you think you have the balance right between the states?

CATHERINE KING: Yeah, so we don't fund on a basis - I don't look at here as the bucket and then divvy it up between states and territories, I'm sure they would like me to do that. We fund projects. I mean, that's basically the way the Commonwealth's investment works. We fund projects. And so at various points in time, there are bigger projects in some states and some are coming off. And of course I do look at that. We want to make sure that investment is occurring across the country. But really we fund projects. And it will just depend where in the life cycle a state is in terms of their major infrastructure projects.

PAUL KARP: Fair enough. I think that’s all we have time for. Thank you so much, Minister.

CATHERINE KING: Lovely to be with you. Thank you.