The assumptions about the business case for Inland Rail are difficult to get a hold of. All of the Government Departments I talk to duck and weave and point the finger at other departments who then point the finger at someone else. We just want transparency about the true cost and assumptions that one of Australia’s largest infrastructure investments is being built on.
Transcript
Inland rail. In August, I contacted the RRAT chair Senator Stirl and asked for the big four accounting firms. Ernst & Young, KPMG, PricewaterhouseCoopers and Deloitte to attend a hearing of the RRAT committee to explain their data that underpins the entire inland rail project. The 24 hour turnaround time. So I just want to get this straight Minister. Inland rail is Australia’s largest infrastructure project since the snowy mountain scheme. Is it correct to say that you are refusing to show the committee or the Senate, the data that justified the spending on $25 billion in taxpayers’ money?
Is that question to me Senator Roberts?
Yes.
I’m afraid I can’t answer that question because I represent urban infrastructure and inland rail is not an urban infrastructure project.
Is there anyone that can answer the question?
Senator, I just clarify that it’s a $15 billion project.
Still the largest since snowy.
I think there’s one bigger right now.
Well exactly. You’re right.
It depends on how you measure it. Ms. Hall Dewey, there was a series of business cases undertaken for the inland rail project. Now I’m not aware of when was the last one.
The last- Sorry, Senator. Jessica Hall, first assistant secretary, Major transport and Infrastructure projects. The business case was released in 2015. And that’s the last business case that was made available. In regards to additional information that has been provided, my understanding is that ARTC releases anything that isn’t commercial and confidence. So, it would just be a question of the fact whether that information was commercial and confidence or not.
Well, Ms. Hall, thank you. My understanding is that the business case was released but the fundamental assumptions in which the business case is built were not released. And that’s what we want to see with the material from the four consulting companies. Because without that basic assumptions, we can’t tell whether it’s feasible or not.
Well, the business case did go to infrastructure Australia and infrastructure Australia, I think put it on the infrastructure priority list.
Are we able to get a look at the assumptions there? They’re fundamental to understanding whether or not inland rail is viable?
Well, I think the information around inland rail has been made viable because BCR has been made public.
BCR?
The Benefit Cost Ratio.
But without the assumptions, how can we assess that ourselves?
Well, I think that’s the role of infrastructure Australia. The infrastructure Australia has assessed that and said that it’s a viable project.
When’s the infrastructure Australia
They’re on this evening at 9:45.
Okay, thank you. So, that’d be able to tell me the details about the 24 hour turnaround time?
I think ARTC would be the best organisation for the 24 hour turnaround times. They’re not currently scheduled for today though, Senator.
No. Do you know when they are scheduled?
I don’t believe they’re scheduled for this estimate, Senator Roberts.
Okay. So is there any possibility that the real figure for compensation for loss of property rights along the inland rail route is ever going to be made public before the project is built?
I think we’d have to take that on notice Senator. I’m not quite sure what you mean in regard to loss of property rights. There’s compensation paid to anybody whose property is acquired.
Yeah. We’d like to know who’s getting the money? Who’s being compensated? We’d like to know who owns the land.
We’ll take that on notice, Senator.
Okay. Thank you. So why is it structured? Why is inland rail structured so that the data that could challenge the preferred alignment is locked up in the big accounting firms and can never be brought into debate? It seems like to me that the government is trying to keep this vital data from us.
I don’t think so, Senator. I think any information as I said, that is not commercially sensitive in regards to ARTC entering into contracts is being made publicly available.
The alignments for the route, also subject to environmental impact assessments and studies through state relevant state jurisdictions. So the usual regulatory approach for this and the control of final approvals for alignments lies with states through their environmental approval processes. More appropriately, ARTC can probably answer in detail on this, but of the 13 major project elements of each of those will be subject to an environmental and consultation process that then goes through the relevant jurisdictions approval arrangements which is subject to different state and territory law, depending on which state it’s in it crosses Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland.
So you’re saying it’s not finalised yet. And it’ll ultimately be in the hands of the states that you need environmental approval?
Yes. Environmental approval is in the hands of the state jurisdictions.
And that could affect the route?
It can. Yes We think the route is currently set and the environmental approval processes are underway. The final detail of the route though I think is question best for the ARTC that’ll be to do with engineering solutions around.
The route has been set. So, the route has actually been set. The purpose of the environmental assessment processes are to give confidence to the communities and to the states and to others about what provisions ARTC has to put in place to make sure that the environment is actually protected.
Will we ever know who owned the land that was purchased for the inland rail and what price was paid for it?
I’ll take that on notice, Senator. We should be able to get you something in regards to that.
Thank you very much.
So, just to clarify, because Senator Stirl has made a valid point about questions taken on notice and amount of time and blah, blah, blah. But just to be specific because I’m not entirely sure what that question is that you’ve just taken on notice. So you talking about in Queensland, you talking about the entire route from Victoria. So what you want is the-
The names of the people.
The names of the property owners.
Correct.
And the amount they’re being paid for their acquisition of the inland rail route through their property.
Correct.
And I’ll take long notice to see what information I can provide in regards to that. Because there’ll be a whole lot of issues in regards to personal information being provided.
Yes, so I’d imagine that not everybody wants that too.
It’s quite a complex requested 17,000 kilometres of route traversing a lot of different territories.
In the communities and among our constituents, there are a lot of questions being asked about that. A lot of questions.
Yeah. I understand.
And I appreciate that I guess it’s just been clear about if you can narrow that that would probably be helpful if you want to question and answer back quickly.
Well, I think what you’ve done is helped narrow that process.
All right.
