Queensland premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has called the federal government’s lack of funding commitment to the Cross River Rail project “extremely disappointing”, after a meeting with prime minister Malcolm Turnbull in Brisbane on Thursday.
The premier indicated that the prime minister had requested more work be done to iron-out several issues with the business case for the project before federal funds would be released.
“The prime minister has conveyed to me that Infrastructure Australia has a couple of issues [on which] they would like some more work done and I have said that I will progress that work as quickly as possible,” Palaszczuk said.
Indeed, while speaking at a later press conference, Turnbull said that Infrastructure Australia has raised issues of the integration of the Cross River Rail with other transport systems as well as land use opportunities.
“The submission or the proposal is inadequate in a number of respects; this is Infrastructure Australia’s view,” Turnbull said.
“It needs more work. I am not making a criticism of it, I am just stating a fact.”
While the premier stated that the meeting with the prime minister was “constructive”, she emphasised the state government’s disappointment with Canberra’s reticence in providing the required funds.
“The failure to make any specific funding for Cross River Rail in the federal budget was extremely disappointing. Despite receiving the business case and signing an MoU on the project last year, the federal government continues to refuse to contribute the funding needed,” she said.
“My government has committed $850 million for the project. Of all the projects nominated for the National Rail Program in the budget last week, only Cross River Rail has a completed business case.”
State transport minister Jackie Trad has also indicated that further issues were the concern of the federal government, telling The Courier-Mail that Canberra had requested financing plans to maximise value capture that would mean higher taxes for Queenslanders.
“[W]e don’t want unfair taxes imposed on Queensland that no other state has to pay,” she was quoted as saying.
It remains unclear how long the issues with the business case will take to resolve, and Trad was quoted in the Australian Financial Review saying that the project could be significantly delayed.
“The reality is that, under the Turnbull government’s overhyped $10 billion rail package, there will be no contribution for at least another two years,” she said.
The Transport and Infrastructure Council meeting will come together on Friday, during which Trad and other transport ministers will have the opportunity to put state government grievances over budget funding to their federal counterparts Darren Chester and Paul Fletcher.
.png){kind=small}
