Today Show interview

KARL STEFANOVIC, HOST: It's been talked about for decades but the idea of travelling between Australia's two biggest cities via high speed train is actually one step closer.

ALLISON LANGDON, HOST: The Federal Government will this morning put the project back on the agenda establishing the High Speed Rail Authority. And for more we're joined by Minister for Infrastructure, Catherine King in Canberra. Minister, nice to see you this morning.

MINISTER FOR INFRATRUCTURE, TRANSPORT, REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT, CATHERINE KING: It's really good to be with you.

LANGDON: This was first suggested back in 1984. So there's been four decades of talk and not a whole lot of action.

KING: That's exactly right. So I'm really proud, today I'll be introducing the legislation to establish the High Speed Rail Authority which will have the responsibility to do the planning work and start the corridor acquisition, for high speed rail in this country. We're concentrating to start with, on the Newcastle-Sydney bit, that's the most commercially viable bit to start with. There's a lot of

work to do. But as you know, if you don't start, you don't take that first step along the journey you never actually get to your destination. So, I'm really proud to be the Minister introducing that to today. People will know this is something that Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is incredibly passionate about. And I'm really proud to be the Minister who's getting it started. It's going to take a long time, but we really want to get that investment underway and really want to start the work to get it done.

STEFANOVIC: I'd love to see it all around Australia, and it just makes a lot of sense.

KING: Lots of people will. I live in Ballarat, we'd love to see it between Ballarat and Melbourne. That's a long way off, so we'll do the Newcastle-Sydney bit, start the planning work and land acquisition/ We'll work with the New South Wales Government and really make sure that we bring high speed rail to Australia.

STEFANOVIC: Is it actually happening?

KING: Well we've got to start, so we're a bit behind. Obviously we haven't done a lot of work in the last decade. We did start to do a business case back when we were last in government. So that was done. We need to update that. We've got to work out how the financing mechanisms are going to work. We're going to need lots of investment in this project. So, this is really the first piece establishing the Authority whose responsibility it will be to actually get the work done to bring high speed rail to Australia.

LANGDON: So, why hasn't it been done before there because it's been found to be viable and will be profitable. Yet, you know, for decades. No one's managed to get it done?

KING: I don't know. I think it's one of those things that people just think it's too hard. And I think that's one of the hallmarks that I hope you see of the Albanese Government, is that we actually do want to work for the future. Actually think not just about our term in government. It's about what the next 20, 30, 40 years look like; to plan for this country and actually make sure that we've got those developments we need. We know that internationally high speed rail is really replacing often domestic air flight so we're seeing that it's actually a really good thing for the environment. If they can do it in other countries, we've got that density of population now, particularly along that Newcastle-Sydney area. I think this is really a project thats time has come.

STEFANOVIC: Go forth and make it happen. Good on you Minister and thanks for being with us.