High-profile lawyer Marie Shaw says she was told reports supporting Eyre Peninsula rail have been ‘buried’ by Transport Department

A parliamentary committee has heard reports supporting the revival of major rail route are being deliberately “buried” by the Transport Department.

One of the state’s most senior barristers was contacted by a Transport Department whistleblower and told that reports supporting the revival of rail on the Eyre Peninsula were being deliberately “buried”, a committee has heard.

Marie Shaw KC told a parliamentary committee the whistleblower called her last December about her view that rail services should be resumed, which he said was correct “economically and on every other basis”.

He told her the department was “well aware of that and they had written reports confirming that over a long period of time” but they were never acted upon or made public.

“Every time they wrote a report saying ‘We ought to build rail to reduce the cost of transport and save lives’ — and, of course, the time for transport is markedly less if there’s rail — their reports preferencing rail were essentially buried,” she said.

The department denied the claim.

Ms Shaw, who comes from Warrachie, said the March 2019 closure of rail on the Eyre Peninsula had left the area in “serious decay”.

Marie Shaw KC. Picture: Greg Higgs

She investigated why the service was stopped midway through a 50-year lease the state government signed with rail operator Genesee Wyoming in 1997.

Viterra, a grain-handling business which has silos along the railway line, said Genesee Wyoming increased costs to the point it became uneconomical to use the service.

“That meant that Genesee Wyoming could close parts of their railway lines that were not giving them the returns they wanted, and so they did,” she said.

Genesee Wyoming later became One Rail Australia, which recently sold its South Australian assets, including regional rail lines, to Aurizon.

A spokesman for Transport Minister Tom Koutsantonis said the government had reached out to Aurizon and was keen to discuss its intentions for the assets, including for rail on the Eyre Peninsula.

“It is important to note that the Eyre Peninsula railway is a single-commodity rail line, which was only used for grain transport, and Viterra — the sole customer — made a commercial decision to move to road transport instead, resulting in the mothballing of the line,” he said.

“Consequently, the government moved to upgrade Eyre Peninsula road routes to cater for the additional road freight, and will be commencing engagement in coming weeks on upgrades to four key intersections in Port Lincoln.”

He said the minister has not been made aware of any reports prepared for the previous government urging the opposite course of action.

A department spokesman said it was unaware of any historical or current report that supported the revival of rail on the Eyre Peninsula, and denied any claim that it has “buried” such a report.

Under the terms of the lease, if the railway is unused for 18 months, the government can call for its surrender, but the spokesman said no request has been made to Aurizon.

In a statement, Aurizon said it acquired the business in July and was “clearly unable to comment on matters that occurred in 2019”.

“Aurizon sees many opportunities to grow the business for the benefit of customers and the state economies of South Australia and the Northern Territory,” it said.

“It is early days in any assessment of disused corridors that are part of our long-term lease.

“We would need to fully understand the condition of the infrastructure, together with any commercial opportunities available, before we could consider future operations.”

Originally published as High-profile lawyer Marie Shaw says she was told reports supporting Eyre Peninsula rail have been ‘buried’ by Transport Department