27 Sept 2017
The ambitious ‘once in a 100-year’ inland freight rail project connecting Melbourne and Brisbane was always going to face some hurdles. For projects on this scale it can be hard to ensure the interests of all affected groups have been heard. In the case of Inland Rail, the project’s initial consultation process has resulted in confusion and frustration from the very people that need to be brought along for the ride.
Last week, Federal Infrastructure Minister Darren Chester announced the Queensland section of the Inland Rail line route between Yelarbon and Gowrie will run via Brookstead, Pittsworth and the Wellcamp-Charlton Industrial Precinct. This designated corridor potentially has significant implications for farmers and landholders on the Condamine floodplain, and QFF and industry members remain concerned with how the line will cross up to 16km of the floodplain between Brookstead and Millmerran.
While QFF and members do not consider the right decision has been made, after you factor in the considerations and provisions needed to accommodate the floodplain concerns and impacts raised, it is unlikely to change. QFF is now committed to holding the government to account on its promise to consult and work with the community to get the engineering right and ensure it is communicated in way landholders can understand and trust.
This will require resetting how community consultation has been conducted to date. Key to this will be heeding the learning lessons from the failed Yelarbon to Gowrie Project Reference Group (Y2GPRG), which lost all community confidence. The soon to be formed Border to Gowrie Community Consultative Committee (B2GCCC) leadership and processes will need to be much more transparent and competent than those under the Y2GPRG if it is to gain community acceptance. It was heartening to have Minister Chester extend the offer of a community based chair for the B2GCCC in a conversation he and I had after his Rural Press Club address.
Principally, QFF and its industry members support the Inland Rail project. We have been and will continue to constructively work alongside the government to ensure it becomes a reality. But at the same time, QFF does not want to see a situation where the railway unnecessarily comes at a cost to one industry over another, especially in a highly productive region like the Condamine floodplain.
With only a very small percentage of Australia considered prime agricultural land, it is essential that as a community, state and nation we are not compromising or unnecessarily taking some of the best land out of production. Any decisions made impacting on prime agricultural land must be considered against existing rural planning legislation and the goal of doubling the state’s agricultural production by 2040.
Every large project will have its share of challenges to overcome. For nation building projects such as Inland Rail that will have ramifications for generations to follow, it is essential that we address the issues properly. Governments should be looking to demonstrate a renewed commitment to landholders and the broader community through the forthcoming Border to Gowrie preferred corridor study. One way to do this would be to conduct an independent review the contentious Condamine floodplain elements of the Environmental Impact Statement to ensure greater transparency and accountability, which would help get the project’s consultative requirements back on track.
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