LANDHOLDERS and communities along the Narromine to Narrabri section of the Inland Rail route may well be wondering when and if the project will proceed as the federal government appears to put the brakes on the northern half of the line.

A scathing independent review of the Inland Rail by Dr Kerry Schott has revealed poor management, delays, and cost blowouts at every corner of the project, with the current federal government saying they are left to “clean up the mess.”

In response to Dr Kerry Schott’s review, the Albanese government have announced that they will be prioritising the Melbourne to Parkes section of the rail, in line with Dr Schott’s recommendations.

It now seems the Narrabri to Narromine rail which also passes through the Gilgandra, Coonamble and Warrumbungle shires, could be on the back burner until Inland Rail is “back on track and delivering the jobs and investment the communities across the route deserve”.

However, the Minister for Transport, Infrastructure and Regional Development, Catherine King has stated that the government still remains committed to the megaproject.

“The effort and concentration is on getting it to Parkes, we think that is where we can get a return on investment,” she said at a press conference on Thursday 6 April.

“We do want to see it get to Ebenezer (Brisbane) but we’re not in a position to start building to do that,” Minister King said.

“The previous government began this project with no idea where the rail line would start in Melbourne and where it would finish in Brisbane, or how it would interact with towns, communities, and the natural environment along the route.”

The report identified that finishing the Melbourne to Parkes route would provide the best outcomes from a cost-to-benefit ratio.

“The obvious thing to do is to try and get Melbourne through to Parkes done, which would connect you to the East-West line as well as starting the North-South line,” said Dr Kerry Schott.

“ARTC could pick up some revenue on that because there are trains that they could Melbourne through to Sydney through Parkes.”

“But also, from Sydney through Parkes through to Perth… it won’t give you the benefit of getting through to Brisbane.”

Dr Kerry Schott. IMAGE: National Press Club of Australia

The project which the minister is now referring to as “1700km of Liberal National Incompetence” has blown out in both time and cost since its inception in 2017.

The original estimated cost of the project was just $9.3billion.

In 2020 further estimates were released, and the project was then estimated to cost $16.4 billion and be open and ready for rail journeys in 2026-27.

No faith in the figures

Fast forward again to the Schott report and the cost and timeline have again blown out, this time to a projected $31.4 billion in cost and completion date of 2030-31.

However, Dr Kerry Schott is hesitant to even put stock behind those figures.

“We all know infrastructure costs are going up at the moment, but they’re not going up like that,” said Dr Kerry Schott.

“I got to the point when I looked at it more closely that I don’t actually accept either of those figures because the reality is that there’s so much uncertainty about it that I just felt I couldn’t really believe those numbers.”

Within her report, Dr Schott also found that the approvals process and community consultation done by ARTC was substandard.

“ARTC did not manage that process very well, and in the process, they managed to upset everybody,” said Dr Schott.

“When you do that, you then instead of making any progress you go three steps, so they’ve had to recover from starting off quite badly with their approval processes.”

“The way this was set up within ARTC… it led to a tremendous lack of focus.”

But despite the damning report, both Dr Schott and the government maintained that Inland Rail will play a key role in tackling Australia’s growing freight problem moving forward.

“It’s not about moving goods from one port to another port; it’s basically about getting all the great produce from Queensland down to the south of the country, it’s a really large freight task and at the moment all that freight is mainly coming down the road,” said Dr Schott.

“By 2030 that’s going to be impossible, that’s why the project was started in the first place.”

“It’s not a bad project, but it’s just been managed really badly.”

Minister for Infrastructure, Transport & Regional Development. IMAGE: Parliament of Australia

Minister King echoed this sentiment.

“The aim of this is about getting as many refrigerated trucks off the road as we move into a more carbon-friendly transport freight more,” said Minister King.

“That’s the benefits of this project.”

Federal Member for Parkes, Mark Coulton has responded to the report, stating that the government is using it to criticise the project.

“I am not dismissing Kerry Schott’s report out of hand, but I am calling on Minister King to commit to the project because there are more than one hundred farmers awaiting confirmation that this project is going ahead.”

“The report suggested that the previous government should not have begun construction before the entire project was approved, however, the cost would have been much larger has this project been delayed.”

Member for Parkes Mark Coulton with former Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Development, Michael McCormack MP at the time the Parkes to Narromine section was completed. IMAGE: M Coulton MP

“While the suggestion of there being a need to finetune the skillset on the board seems a reasonable comment, I want to make the point that the skillset on the ground is world class. The completed sections of the Inland Rail are as good as any railroad in the world.”

As it stands the Narrabri to Narromine route remains in the approvals phase where it will for the foreseeable future as the federal government focuses on providing more concrete project costs and timelines.

“We’re just not in a position today on the basis of what we know in terms of the project to say, you know, we will start building on this date,” said Minister King.

“Because if we did, I would be doing exactly what the previous government was doing – just making it up.”

“And I don’t want to do that; I want to deliver this project. I want to provide certainty.”