State Labor Must Release SC Rail Business Case
The Miles State Labor Government and his ‘L plate’ Transport Minister Bart Mellish are continuing to take Sunshine Coast residents for fools, today claiming the Beerwah to Maroochydore Heavy Rail line will cost $12 billion.
Speaking in Queensland Parliament Bart Mellish all but abandoned the crucial project, suggesting a business case submitted to Infrastructure Australia costed the build at $12 billion.
Sunshine Coast MP, Andrew Wallace said the Minister must make the business case public, because Queenslanders do not trust this hopeless State Labor Government.
“L Plate Minister Bart Mellish should put the Business Case where his mouth is and release it to the Queensland people. If he thinks he can stand up in Parliament and quote big numbers then he better have the proof to back it up,” Mr Wallace said.
“This is another budget blow-out by the Palaszczuk-Miles Labor Government. They have dropped the ball big time. Delays drive up prices and the CFMEU tax adds at least 30% to major infrastructure costs. Queensland’s construction sector confidence is at an historic low. And runaway inflation thanks to Federal Labor has only made it worse.
“The financials were done, and the former Federal Coalition Government contributed 50% of the funding, along with a 10% contingency. This amounted to half of the total project cost from Beerwah all the way to Maroochydore, even though the project is entirely the State Government's responsibility.
“Now they’re knocking on the door of Federal Labor asking for another $1.1 billion just to build the line to Caloundra, not even halfway. So, State Labor wants to give us a third of the rail for twice the price.
“Thanks to Steven Miles, Cameron Dick, Jason Hunt and now Bart Mellish regional Queensland will miss out yet again. Labor have had their hands on the purse strings since 2015 and only now want to build rail into Caloundra to sandbag the seat ahead of the October election.
“Labor don’t care about the Sunshine Coast, they don’t care about transport, and they don’t care about delivering the Sunshine Coast heavy rail project. All they care about is playing tricky politics and desperately trying to retain the seat of Caloundra”, the Fisher MP said.
