Business
26 June, 2024
Rail study a waste of money, says Katter
Robbie Katter wants the government to make it easier to use the Mount Isa rail line.
Robbie Katter says a $2 million study is “tokenistic” and will do nothing to increase freight tonnage on the Mount Isa rail line because North West businesses favour road transport due to “perverse” government policy.
Several state government ministers were in Townsville last week for a roundtable discussion on new strategies to incentivise the Mount Isa rail line, which has seen 38 per cent of its freight carriage moved onto the roads in recent years.
Minister for Transport and Main Roads Bart Mellish used the forum to announce a $2 million study to “revisit the business case” of the proposed 8.3km Townsville Eastern Access Rail Corridor (TEARC), which aims to increase rail tonnage capacity on the Mount Isa line by linking the North Coast rail line with the Townsville Port.
Mr Katter slammed the rail study, claiming it was “putting the cart before the horse” because North West businesses already favoured road use over rail due to current state government policy and price settings.
Mr Katter questioned the timing of the study announcement, given the state government was fighting for its political survival.
“Those in the room were there to offer real observations and talk about incentivising use of the 50 per cent spare capacity on the Mount Isa line – yet the minister announced a tokenistic money dump to get more consultants for a report that Labor will unlikely get a chance to read, let alone action,” he said.
“A flashy announcement of a simple study into the previously panned TEARC is nothing but a baseless announcement – the reality still bites that fewer and fewer companies want to use the Mount Isa line in the first place.”
Mr Katter said the Mount Isa rail line was one of the only in Queensland to operate without government support.
“More and more freight is hitting the bitumen, not rail, due mostly to the policy settings of the Queensland government,” he said.
“What (forum attendees) clearly said, was the charging mechanism is flawed, and there is no incentive to increase utilisation of the line.
“Issues such as reliability and resilience from weather events and ongoing speed restrictions were also raised – however if there is not urgent structural reform to the charging mechanism, we will continue to see the trend of freight being moved onto the crumbling Flinders Highway.”
Mr Katter said North West mining proponents preferred to discuss alternative rail arrangements, notably the feasibility of moving freight from Mount Isa via Tennant Creek to the Port of Darwin, because it did not involve dealing with the “perverse policy on the Mount Isa line”.
“There are a range of serious, thoroughly planned options on the table from these companies – be that using Darwin, or even heading north to Karumba,” he said.
“The numbers stack up, when they consider the headache that is Queensland Rail and the Queensland government policy settings.”
Flinders Shire mayor Kate Peddle said pricing structures set by the state government were forcing North West industry to choose road use over rail.
“With the current developments like CopperString along the highway, there is a significant opportunity for both road and rail transport to thrive,” she said.
“The issue of imbalance between road and rail on the Flinders is primarily a government problem and it needs to be addressed.”