Rail infrastructure—Freight
80. Ms Ali Kent to the Minister for Transport:
I refer to the Cook Labor government's decision to enter negotiations to secure control of WA's freight network.
(1) Can the minister update the house on the responses to this decision both in the WA community and nationally?
(2) Can the minister advise the house why the government made the decision to enter into these negotiations?
Ms Rita Saffioti replied:
(1)–(2) Thank you for that question. Hopefully the Leader of the National Party will come back, because we know that the Leader of the National Party is very interested in this matter now. He opposes the buyback of the rail line, can members believe! The Nationals WA oppose putting more freight on rail, but we will get back to that in a minute.
Of course, the freight rail network was privatised under the Liberal–National government back in the year 2000. It has been described as the worse privatisation in history.
Mr Shane Love: By you—nobody else has described it that way. What about the way you have mismanaged that situation for many years?
The Speaker: Leader of the National Party!
Ms Rita Saffioti: I will quote Max Trenorden and Phil Gardiner, members. I quote the Countryman article of 10 April, titled "Former Nationals MPs welcome WA Labor's decision to explore taking on WA's grain freight network".
Mrs Jessica Stojkovski: So not just by you!
Ms Rita Saffioti: Not just Labor—by basically all of industry, former National Party members and key figures, basically everyone apart from the Nationals WA and the Liberal Party, which want to stick to that failed privatisation from the year 2000. I quote the article:
As former MPs, we welcome the decision by the WA Labor to reopen discussions on the future of the grain freight network …
The article goes on:
The history surrounding Liberal and National governments' … sale of Westrail, the State's regional passenger and freight network could only be described as gross commercial incompetence, financial ineptitude and, regrettably, personal, petty point scoring.
This is the National Party itself describing the failed privatisation. All those in regional WA know the consequences. We have not been able to move more freight onto rail. We saw the Liberal–National government close tier 3 lines. What—I am sorry? It was the worst privatisation. As a result, we are very keen to bring it back into government hands, because we want to make sure that we can get more freight on rail, more competitive pricing, particularly for our container trade, to reduce the cost pressures on our packaged goods, and make sure we reduce the number of trucks on our regional roads and improve road safety. I was very pleased to see that the Albanese government will back WA Labor's plan by engaging with the Australian Rail Track Corporation to make sure it can be part of what will probably be one of the most comprehensive packages of regional support in the state's history.
I know that the Nationals WA are embarrassed, and I have found quite interesting the level activity from the Leader of the Nationals WA. He wants to be party to the discussions between the state government and Arc Infrastructure. He wants to echo what—
Mr Shane Love interjected.
Ms Rita Saffioti: The National Party that was basically directly engaged in the worst privatisation in the state's history now wants to be involved in the buyback. We could not jeopardise that with those guys! They wrecked the state.
Mr Shane Love interjected.
The Speaker: Leader of the National Party!
Mr Shane Love interjected.
The Speaker: Leader of the National Party! I am going to call you.
Several members interjected.
The Speaker: Members!
Ms Rita Saffioti: The member for Central Wheatbelt came into this chamber and said that the issue of trucks on roads was particularly evident in Central Wheatbelt, where freight should be moved by rail instead of burdening regional roads. Who knew?
The Speaker: If you could start to wrap up, minister, that would be great.
Ms Rita Saffioti: They privatised it and now the Leader of the National Party wants to be involved; he wants to be part of the negotiating team. As if we would risk something that important with the Leader of the National Party who wrecked the state's freight network by privatising it and now wants to wreck our process to get it back into public hands.
