Senate Inquiry delays report into Inland Rail management by three months

Originally due to report its findings by February 11, the Senate Inquiry into the management of Inland Rail has delayed its report.

Darling Downs primary producers, who say their farms and livelihoods are threatened by the proposed Inland Rail route, want the draft Environmental Impact Statement for the contentious Border to Gowrie section put on hold until a Senate Inquiry reports.

Millmerran Rail Group chairman Wes Judd said the Senate Committee’s inquiry into Inland Rail had extended the deadline to report its findings and recommendations from February 11 to May 13.

“Currently, we have only until April 19 to respond to the draft EIS for this contentious route,” Mr Judd said.

“We will not have the benefit of seeing the outcome of the Senate Inquiry before making our submission.”

Mr Judd said a separate International independent Panel of Experts into flood modelling and the hydrology of the route was not expected to complete its work until the end of 2021 – another report he believed residents should have access to before commenting on the EIS.

The Rural and Regional Affairs Senate Committee, which held its first hearing in Millmerran on 29 January last year, is investigating the management of the Melbourne to Brisbane inland rail project by the Australian Rail Track Corporation and the Federal Government.

The MRG has been opposed to the Inland Rail route’s crossing of the Condamine flood plain since it was announced in September 2017, on the basis it could increase flooding risk.

ARTC has confidence in its design of the flood plain crossing.