KARL STEFANOVIC, HOST: Welcome back. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has this morning declared he will support the removal of Andrew from the Royal Line of Succession.

SARAH ABO, HOST: For more, the Minister for Infrastructure and Transport, Catherine King, joins us live now from Newcastle. Minister, good morning to you. This is a significant announcement. Why did the Prime Minister choose to do this now, considering Andrew hasn't even been charged yet?

MINISTER FOR INFRASTRUCTURE, TRANSPORT, REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT CATHERINE KING: The Prime Minister wrote overnight to Keir Starmer to offer if the UK takes the decision that they wish to remove Andrew from the line of succession, to signal Australia's early support for that. We think, really, in terms of what we've been seeing internationally in the news, that really, unfortunately, the royal family is really suffering significantly as a result of Andrew's actions. We've signalled that early support if the UK chooses to do that, to provide that opportunity for the UK to take a decision that requires all of the Commonwealth countries to agree. It requires here, legislation with the states and territories. So the Prime Minister's given that early indication that really we want to draw a line under this too.

STEFANOVIC: You're not trying to just move the topic on are you, from the ISIS brides?

KING: No, not at all. I think you know we can, can walk and chew gum at the same time as a government, as we always do. This is, we've got a long-standing relationship with the UK Government. You know, we've heard that they're thinking about this, and so we've signalled our early indication that they have Australia's support in that matter.

ABO: It has worked. I guess it's on the front pages this morning, and it comes, I suppose, amid the reports of frustration within the Labor caucus on the PM’s handling of the so called ISIS brides. It has been a bit of a mess these past few weeks. You must concede that minister, and you're from Victoria. Would you be happy to have them settle in your home state?

KING: Well, let's be really clear about it. This has been a long-standing position of the government is that we are not repatriating people from Syria. We are not doing that. We're not interested in doing that. We think these people took a decision, a really stupid and dangerous decision that they were warned not to do, and now they are dealing with the consequences of that. We are monitoring these people constantly. They will face potentially, some of them, criminal actions if they do arrive here in Australia. But our job as a government is to keep people safe, and I don't think we resile from that at all, and it's been a long-standing position of the government that we will not repatriate people from that country.

ABO: Needless, they will be put somewhere in their reports this morning that at least a third of them will be in Victoria. So you're happy with that outcome?

KING: Well, again, we are not assisting in any way. They are constantly monitored. Should they arrive here in this country and they have committed crimes, they will face legal action in relation to those. And of course, significant monitoring will continue. But really what we're saying very clearly…

ABO: … so there's no transparency

KING: The decision that these people took… The transparency is we're really clear that we are not assisting in the repatriation of this group of people. If they arrive here on Australian shores, then obviously, if they are subject to criminal action, they will face the full force of the law and of course, be subject to significant monitoring arrangements, as was the case with the 40 people, including fighters with ISIS, who were brought back under the coalition government.

STEFANOVIC: I don't think they were fighters. That has been revised.

KING: Some of them were fighters. Some of them were. Yes.

STEFANOVIC: There wasn't 40 anyway, let's get on to your portfolio. You're going to invest an extra two $230 million into a high speed rail line between Sydney and Newcastle. What does the next stage of the development look like?

KING: So basically, we're releasing the business case today for High Speed Rail. This is a business case that shows that it could grow the economy by $250 billion, thousands of jobs, thousands of extra houses. We're investing a further two $230 million into the development phase, which is basically the design. We are now going to go basically metre by metre down this line, design, all the tunnels, do all of that detailed work to then be able to make a final investment decision in 2028 for bringing High Speed Rail here to Australia. The first case is really for Newcastle to Sydney. Really important. Huge population area, huge opportunity for economic growth here in the Hunter and in between, all through the Central Coast, bringing travel down from an hour from Newcastle, 30 minutes from the Central Coast. And really, this development phase is now basically doing all of that detailed design work, all of the engineering work to really get this project ready for a final investment decision.

ABO: You won't be relying on CFMEU workers to make that project happen will you?

KING: We rely on the fantastic construction industry that works every single day across this country, but really wanting to make sure…

ABO: It’ll be cleaned up then Catherine it’s fine.

STEFANOVIC: We've got to roll. Thanks. Thanks for your time

KING: They’re certainly working pretty hard.

ABO: Thank you Minister.

STEFANOVIC: it's a good infrastructure project. Make it happen.