Anthony Albanese puts blame for Inland Rail chaos on Barnaby Joyce

Anthony Albanese has refused to guarantee when, if ever, the $31bn Inland Rail project would make it to Queensland despite insistence from Steven Miles that it was ‘absolutely critical’ the freight line makes it past the NSW border.

Anthony Albanese visits the Rheinmetall factory in Ipswich, southwest of Brisbane, on Tuesday. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Tertius Pickard

Anthony Albanese has refused to guarantee when, if ever, the $31bn Inland Rail project would make it to Queensland despite insistence from Labor Premier Steven Miles that it was “absolutely critical” the freight line makes it past the NSW border.

Sold to taxpayers by the previous Coalition government almost a decade ago as a trans­formational infrastructure pro­ject that would connect Mel­bourne and Brisbane, Inland Rail has stalled with just 17 per cent of works complete.

The project was meant to be completed by 2027, but after years of political infighting, cost blowouts and delays there are no guarantees the line will ever reach Queensland, with all $14.6bn in confirmed funding restricted to south of the border.

Visiting Queensland on Tuesday, the Prime Minister repeatedly refused to be drawn on when the Queensland leg of the track would be delivered, instead lashing former infrastructure minister Barnaby Joyce for failing to deliver the project when the ­Coalition was in government.

“This is a mess the Coalition left with unfunded, unplanned thought bubbles,” Mr Albanese said. “This bloke (Mr Joyce) was ­infrastructure minister for a ­decade almost … Inland Rail was the one project he talked about and frankly, it still didn’t have a route to the port, any port at all, in Brisbane, in Gladstone in Melbourne.”

Following a 2023 review of ­Inland Rail by former government and business executive Kerry Schott – which found the project had doubled in cost in two years to $31.4bn – the Albanese government said it would eventually build the line from Beveridge in Victoria to ­Kagaru, 70km from the Port of Brisbane.

But after the review, the signed public-private partnership contract to deliver the section from Gowrie, near Toowoomba, to ­Kagaru was terminated.

Mr Miles said it was “absolutely critical” that the federal ­government ensure Inland Rail made it to his state.

“The whole point of Inland Rail was to deliver an inland rail freight route from Melbourne into Queensland and so we need to see it delivered,” the Premier said.

“In terms of the funding of it, well, that’s a decision of the Australian government, but the project itself won’t deliver anything like the benefits that were promised if it doesn’t deliver a way to get freight to and from Melbourne and Queensland.

“At the moment I’d be pleased to just see a plan to get it into Queensland, let alone a plan from wherever that terminal is to the port – of course, eventually, that’s what we’d like to see.”

Opposition infrastructure and transport spokeswoman Bridget McKenzie accused Labor of deliberately slowing work on the project after being spooked by major cost blowouts in the Schott review.

She said regional communities and farmers had been devastated by ongoing delays on the project, which had been announced almost a decade ago.

“(They) have gone through the consultation process, the land acquisition phase, so they have dealt with the fact that it’s going to be going through and they’re looking forward to the opportunity that it will ­provide in terms of emissions ­reductions and ­safety and economic benefits,” Senator McKenzie said.

“I think it points to the government’s (view of) where does regional Australia and agriculture actually come in the governments thinking and prioritisation, and one again, this government is out of sight out of mind.”

Federal Infrastructure and Transport Minister Catherine King said the Coalition started building Inland Rail without knowing where it would start or finish, how much it would actually cost or how long it would take to build.

“What we have done is clean up the project,” she said.

“The ARTC and Inland Rail Pty Ltd are continuing the work necessary to gain environmental approvals, to secure the Inland Rail corridor in NSW and Queensland.”