Nationals’ row threatens to derail Inland Rail project

An internal dispute within the party threatens the timing of the federal government’s $15bn Inland Rail project and has been criticised by businesses fearful of further delays.

Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce has been warned to stay firm on the designated corridor of the Inland Rail project from Melbourne to Brisbane. Picture: Alex Ellinghausen

An internal Nationals dispute threatens the timing of the federal government’s $15bn Inland Rail project and has been criticised by businesses fearing further delays.

The official plan of Australian Rail Track Corporation is for the 1700km freight line to run from Melbourne to Brisbane, but competing line deviations pushed by Nationals MPs have gained traction in recent months.

Agriculture Minister David Littleproud has told colleagues he wants the planned route from NSW to Toowoomba to be changed to appease angry farmers in his Maranoa electorate in Queensland’s southwest.

His proposal, detailed in a four-page document distributed to MPs late last week, has been criticised by some of his colleagues.

Prominent Toowoomba businessman John Wagner, whose company owns the Wellcamp Airport on Toowoomba’s outskirts, said the proposed last-minute changes were “politics at its worst”.

“The rail line has been set for years and years,” Mr Wagner said. “They’re about to award a successful contractor for the border to Gowrie section, which comes through Wellcamp. “If they vary that it will set the project back by at least five years.”

Mr Wagner said Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce needed to remain firm on the designated corridor.

“Barnaby Joyce needs to say, ‘the route is the route, just get on and build the damn thing’,” Mr Wagner said. “That needs to happen (this) week.”

Mr Wagner said his company wanted to build associated infrastructure to create Australia’s first intermodal road, rail and air distribution centre in Toowoomba. “We want to have that up and running by the time Inland Rail comes through Wellcamp,” he said.

“It’s really important to our region and for national freight and logistics that we stop with this nonsense and get the thing built.”

Toowoomba-based Groom MP Garth Hamilton was frustrated by the continued delays and proposed changes.

“As a government we need to have the courage to make a bloody decision,” Mr Hamilton said.

“It’s time we stopped talking about where inland rail goes and start talking about how we’re going to use it.”

Mr Hamilton said “poor” stakeholder engagement was to blame for continued talk about route changes. “Industry is already choosing to invest in Toowoomba based on the existing route and the existing timetable,” he said.

“I refuse to let Toowoomba miss out on the benefits of this once-in-a lifetime opportunity.”

Toowoomba Regional Council Infrastructure chairwoman Carol Taylor said Mr Littleproud’s proposed route had already been discussed and “discarded”.

“To hold this project up for ­another five to 10 years simply to revisit this idea would not be in the best interests of anybody and would have major impacts on the Toowoomba region and Queensland’s economic growth,” she said.

Meanwhile, Mr Joyce is advocating for an extra 550km line to be built from Toowoomba to Gladstone, where the Nationals federal seat of Flynn faces a challenge from Labor.

The Toowoomba to Brisbane leg of the rail line has also met with fierce opposition from community groups. The short leg would also require a significant portion of the project’s budget, costing about $5.5bn, because of the difficult ­engineering challenges posed by the Toowoomba range.

Mr Wagner said he supported plans for another rail line to go from Toowoomba to Gladstone, as long as the Brisbane line was ­ensured.

“It’s definitely got to go to Brisbane,” Mr Wagner said. “All the work’s been done and we just need to get on and damn well build the thing.”

Resistance to the project has been strong in the Lockyer Valley vegetable growing region where the idea of 1.8km-long trains running through five quiet towns every day has residents up in arms.

Opposition has also been strong in suburban Brisbane, particularly around the southern suburb of Acacia Ridge where the line is expected to terminate. Residents there are concerned about the impact that the trucks travelling the 30km from the rail depot to the Port of Brisbane will have on local roads.