A “BIGNESS of thinking” is essential to bring about high-speed rail, a Border MP has told Federal Parliament.
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Indi independent Cathy McGowan yesterday called on all political parties to support something that would “make our large country smaller” and reduce isolation.
Albury-Wodonga, Wagga and Shepparton have all been included in a proposed stage one of a line between Sydney and Melbourne.
Ms McGowan was prompted to speak out following Monday’s Australasian Railway Association conference on high-speed rail at Parliament House in Canberra.
A report released at the conference estimated a Brisbane to Melbourne line would cost $63 billion to build.
That is 45 per cent less than the $114 billion from a previous federal government report.
Ms McGowan told Parliament that this “more affordable and practical” cost was significant and exciting.
“This would have huge opportunities for the cities and regional Australian towns on its corridor,” he said.
“It is a nation-building project and it has the sort of scope a government could be committed to with a bit of vision and leadership.”
Ms McGowan said while the project would create better connections between the major capitals, it would also be a great catalyst for decentralisation.
“This would grow communities that I represent in Albury-Wodonga, in Wangaratta, in Benalla,” she said.
“It would spur regional development that we absolutely need and it would make regional capitals grow to be the hub of rural and regional Australia.”
Ms McGowan said government had to look at high-speed rail outside of the normal budget cycle.
It was, she said, “about infrastructure on a major scale”.
“To be successful, what we need to do is bring all levels of government, all persuasions of government and all our communities along the eastern seaboard to come and work as one,” Ms McGowan said.
During her speech, she paid tribute to a conference presentation from former Wodonga mayor Mark Byatt, who focused on high-speed rail’s potential benefits to the Border region.
Among a host of statistics she raised yesterday, Ms McGowan noted that high-speed rail would bring about a jump in domestic regional productivity for Wodonga of $3000 a head.