States cry foul as Vaile vows to take control of ports development

State governments have responded angrily to transport minister Mark Vaile’s plan for the Federal Government to take more control over road and rail infrastructure planning. Canberra yesterday (Sunday, August 19) reiterated its threat to take control of ports struggling to meet capacity demands for resource exports. Mr Vaile told the Australian Financial Review that federal departmental staff would receive training to better interrogate cost estimates for state government -requested projects. The Federal Government would not bail out the states if project costs blew out, he said. Queensland premier Peter Beattie today said the state would not hand over its ports to the Commonwealth. &#8220You wouldn’t put this Federal Government in charge of running a chook raffle,&#8221 he said. &#8220This latest ploy by the Howard Government to try and scrape over the election line would be disastrous for ports around the country and for Queensland exports.&#8221 The Queensland Government was investing more than $2.9bn in ports and coal rail infrastructure, while the private sector was investing a further $1.5bn, Mr Beattie said. In New South Wales, ports minister Joe Tripodi also ruled out a ports hand-over. He criticised the Federal Government for not starting upgrade work on the South Sydney freight line and rail track connecting the Hunter coalmines to the Newcastle port. And Western Australia minister for planning and infrastructure Alannah MacTiernan attacked the Federal Government for its inequitable distribution of funding in the last AusLink round. She said it was unfair that WA received around 10% of the initial AusLink funding package, when the state produced 34% of the nation’s exports. &#8220Not one of our regional export ports, including the largest and second-largest ports in Australia, are included on the national transport network,&#8221 the Financial Review reported Ms MacTiernan as saying. &#8220The roads into those ports are not included.&#8221 Of the $22.3bn set aside for AusLink II, about $400m had been allocated to cover cost blow-outs from the AusLink I package, the Financial Review reported. Queensland lodged a $30bn claim for funding, and Victoria outlined an $11.5bn list, after the Federal Government requested the states submit infrastructure priority lists for consideration. &#8220These guys have just got to get real [it is&#93 an ambit bid against a commonwealth funding program that is just way out of whack,&#8221 Mr Vaile was quoted as saying in the Financial Review.

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