Queensland blames the Albanese government for Inland Rail research delay

Funding for a key business case to connect the Brisbane port to the Inland Rail Freight line has been reduced to a trickle until at least 2027.

More than $13m in funding for a key business case into how to connect Inland Rail to the Brisbane port has been delayed.

More than $13m in funding for a key business case into how to connect Inland Rail to the Brisbane port has been delayed, raising concerns that the stalled Queensland leg of the freight line will be further held up.

Queensland’s Transport Minister Bart Mellish has blamed the Albanese government’s infrastructure pipeline review for the budget of the Port of Brisbane Further Planning Project being reduced from $14.58m to $1.3m over the next two years.

The delay is despite Infrastructure Australia in 2016 saying a dedicated freight connection to the port was a “high priority initiative”, with container trade to the port expected to increase by 300 per cent by 2045.

The $20m research was funded by the Morrison government in 2019 and was supposed to examine the need for a direct freight line to the port, which is hampered by a choked rail and road network through suburban Brisbane. Less than $5m has been spent in the past six years, and funding has been reduced to a trickle until at least 2027.

Queensland government project documents show funding in 2024-25 being reduced from $6.38m to $800,000. The following two years were budgeted for $8.2m, but most of that has been pushed out to $13.58m in 2027-28, while only $500,000 will be spent in 2025-26.

“Timing and cashflows of the project have been impacted by the Australian Government’s Independent Strategic Review of the Infrastructure Investment Program, resulting in a reduced budget in 2024–25,” Mr Mellish said in response to a Question on Notice in August.

Mr Mellish on Monday said the research had so far found that “forecast freight demand may warrant upgrades to the existing rail network in the coming years, but that a dedicated freight corridor is a longer-term opportunity”.

Federal Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government minister Catherine King said the government was committed to Inland Rail and focused on a staged approach to the project, in line with the recommendations from a review last year by former transport executive Kerry Schott.

“The Australian Government is committed to getting the Inland Rail project back on track, so that this important project can meet Australia’s growing freight task, improve road safety and help decarbonise our economy,” Ms King said.

It comes after concerns that the 1600km Inland Rail freight line from Melbourne would not make it into Queensland.

The Albanese government has agreed “in principle” that Inland Rail “should extend at least to Ebenezer”, west of Brisbane, subject to consideration of an intermodal terminal business case being developed by the Queensland government and National Intermodal Corporation and due for release in 2025.

It comes as a private consortium has been lobbying the Queensland government to grant it an exclusivity agreement that would enable it to commit private investor funding to progress detailed works into its proposal to build a 60km tunnel to connect the rail line from Ebenezer to the port.

National Trunk Rail chairman Martin Albrecht said the delays in developing the port connection business case was disappointing.

“We have an opportunity to get this project up and running by 2031 but as long as people are dithering, it will not happen,” Mr Albrecht said.