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General Purpose Standing Committee No. 4

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About this Item
Subjects -  Railways; Inquiries; Parliamentary Committees: New South Wales: General Purpose
Speakers - Pavey The Hon Melinda; Gay The Hon Duncan
Business - Committee, Report


    GENERAL PURPOSE STANDING COMMITTEE NO. 4
Page: 15047


    Report: Inquiry into Closure of the Casino to Murwillumbah Rail Service

    Debate resumed from 23 March 2005.

    The Hon. MELINDA PAVEY [3.19 p.m.]: The closure of the rail line from Casino to Murwillumbah has impacted severely on the community in northern New South Wales. The decision to close the line was made by the Carr Labor Government when the Minister for Roads, the Hon. Michael Costa, was the Minister for Transport Services. The closure of the service has had a terrible impact on the community. Today in this Chamber when the Minister for Roads was questioned on his closure of the rail lines, he quite flippantly suggested that he had not closed any rail lines as such an action requires an Act of Parliament.

    The Hon. Peter Breen: What a classic!

    The Hon. MELINDA PAVEY: It was an absolute classic. The Minister for Roads argued that he did not close down the Casino to Murwillumbah rail line as the rail line still exists. While what the Minister said may be correct literally, I remind him that there are no trains using that rail line and a number of other branch lines throughout country New South Wales.

    The Hon. Duncan Gay: At Gwabegar there is a log across the line.

    The Hon. MELINDA PAVEY: The Deputy Leader of the Opposition has referred to Gwabegar, where the branch line remains officially open in the sense that we have not had an Act of Parliament to close it down, but in every practical sense the line has ceased to function. A large log across the line prevents the transportation by rail of grain and produce from the district. Branch lines in inland, northern and western New South Wales are symptomatic of the problems of infrastructure throughout the State. This Government is intent on running down infrastructure. That is convenient because the condition of infrastructure was one of the reasons the Government gave for closing the Casino to Murwillumbah rail line.

    On 6 April 2004 the State Labor Government, through the present Minister for Roads, announced closure of the Casino to Murwillumbah XPT passenger rail service despite an earlier commitment by the former Minister for Transport Services that there would be no closure of any rail lines for so long as a year-long review of rail services in New South Wales was under way. At that time the Government stated that its decision to close the Casino to Murwillumbah rail service had to be made in response to budgetary constraints. The only change in the New South Wales budget has been the additional funds that have been flowing into State coffers, such as an extra $5 billion in stamp duty alone in the past decade, the certainty of additional GST revenue and increased State taxes.

    It is the pathetic argument of the current Treasurer, Dr Andrew Refshauge—as it was of the former Treasurer, the Hon. Michael Egan—that New South Wales is broken and that it is all the fault of the Commonwealth because New South Wales subsidises Western Australia, South Australia and Tasmania as a result of the Commonwealth Grants Commission formula for revenue distribution. Opposition members continually hear the claim by Labor members that budgetary constraints are all the fault of the Commonwealth Government. However, the widely read New South Wales Premier admitted in his book Thought Lines that the formula of the Commonwealth Grants Commission operates outside the political process. That is why the Federal Leader of the Opposition, Kim Beazley, has not promised that he would come to the rescue of allegedly short-changed New South Wales if ever he were to win government federally. The Commonwealth Grants Commission works outside the political process, and that is a good thing: sometimes the right decision has to be made because Tasmania and the Northern Territory have specific logistical problems.

    The Hon. Christine Robertson: You should be helping us with the Commonwealth Grants Commission.

    The Hon. MELINDA PAVEY: And Kim Beazley should be helping New South Wales just as much as anybody else, but he is not. The issue is that pathetic financial management of this State over the past decade by Premier Bob Carr and a succession of pathetic Ministers have driven our infrastructure and services into the ground. The closure of the Casino to Murwillumbah railway line is a very good example of the failure of the Carr Government to manage New South Wales. RailCorp claimed that it would save hundreds of millions of dollars and that rail bridges would be replaced. Infrastructure has been allowed to run down over the past 10 years and it is estimated that it will cost $92 million over the next 20 years to replace damaged or poorly maintained infrastructure. RailCorp highlighted to the committee the low and declining levels of patronage on the Casino to Murwillumbah rail service as part of the excuses that were proffered by the Government for closure of the line.

    The committee travelled to the North Coast during the inquiry and took interesting evidence from good local people—very experienced, impassioned, knowledgeable people who are well aware of this Government's agenda. As a member of the upper House based on the North Coast I witnessed the attitude and behaviour of Labor members of the committee during the public hearings. They did not want to be at the hearings and did not want to hear about the impacts that the Government's decision was having on the lives of local people. That is a great shame. Their behaviour reflected no credit on the Legislative Council.

    I congratulate the Hon. Jennifer Gardiner on her chairmanship of the committee. The committee's extensive report firmly places on the record the Government's thinking that underpinned the decision to close the Casino to Murwillumbah rail line as revealed in the evidence given by Vince Graham from RailCorp. The report also deals with the social impacts of the decision and its effect on people's lives—people will no longer be able to board the XPT at Murwillumbah to travel to Sydney; they will be faced with making costly alternative arrangements. One of the reasons advanced by the Government and the former Minister for Transport Services to justify the decision was the impact of the introduction of low or budget airfares on trips from the Gold Coast to Sydney. Evidence given to the committee of the use of the rail line service, particularly during school holidays, negated the Government's reasons and indicated that demand for the service still exists. The Opposition is committed to the reinstatement of a service on the North Coast between Casino and Murwillumbah on the Coalition's return to government in 2007.

    Aside from the social impacts of the closure of the rail line, the tourism attractions of the North Coast in one of the most incredibly picturesque areas of the State must also be considered. Byron Bay is a holidaymaker and backpacker destination and many young travellers want to visit that part of the world, but they are being denied that opportunity by the closure of this rail service. I congratulate the Hon. Catherine Cusack who has worked very closely with the North Coast community and many local activists. I recognise the ongoing work of those involved in the TOOT [Trains on our Tracks] campaign, who are in regular contact with me by email to keep me informed of the campaign's efforts to maintain pressure on the Government and to secure reintroduction of the service. I congratulate them on their work.

    Let us hope that the Government in its wisdom and the present Minister for Transport in particular will take a close look at this report and realise the very bad mistake made by the former Minister for Transport Services, the Hon. Michael Costa, in closing down the Casino to Murwillumbah rail service and that, consequently, reinstitution of the rail service will be achieved sooner than the Coalition winning government.

    The Hon. DUNCAN GAY (Deputy Leader of the Opposition) [3.30 p.m.]: I congratulate the Hon. Jennifer Gardiner and the committee on producing this great report, which I support. This inquiry certainly had huge community support, as evidenced by the hundreds of people who attended the hearings. The report reflects the knee-jerk reactions of a tired old Government that is in decay. A decision to close a viable branch line—

    The Hon. Amanda Fazio: That is your line.

    The Hon. DUNCAN GAY: It is a little different from the Government's line of blaming workers for their own job losses. That viable railway line was used by the community. Minister Costa, who took an offer from John Anderson to fund a railway line that was a State Government responsibility, then took an offer from Mark Latham. No-one else in Australia was silly enough to believe that Mark Latham was going to run anything. That Minister Costa preferred an offer from Mark Latham, accepted it and lauded it, is proof positive that there is not just one boofhead Minister in this House; there are a number of them. This is the greatest con of all. The Government indicated that because sleepers were being delivered and repairs were being carried out it was not prepared to shut down that railway line, but it said that over time it would be shut down because of falling use.

    Pursuant to standing orders business interrupted.


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