I have had the good fortune to travel on the Eurostar and France's TGV (320km/h) as well as Japan's Shinkansen (360km/h). If I was in these countries, or many others, a trip from Albury to Melbourne would take an hour, Sydney to Melbourne in three hours (and that's with stops along the way).

The VLocity train doesn't deserve the title it has been given. It does nothing to alleviate the congestion of our capital cities and roads.

So when did we go off the rails? In Australia, for decades, regional rail services have experienced 'demolition by neglect'.

A lack of will and imagination by politicians on both sides of the fence has seen us stand still (or in some instances, go backwards) for half a century.

It is a tragedy that regional Australians have gotten so used to accepting second best in so many areas from their governments at national and state level - lots of talk by politicians in Akubras and RM Williams, but little action. Prime ministers, state premiers and ministers have been good at talking about their love of regional Australia and how much they want to support and connect our regional centres. Regretfully this love and support doesn't translate into vision and spending.

IN OTHER NEWS:

I watched the Welcome to Country of the opening of the 47th Parliament and heard the Opposition Leader, Peter Dutton, say that he wants this Parliament to improve the conditions and services of Australia's First Nations peoples. What better way to do this than to enshrine in the constitution a First Nations voice to Parliament? To have the First Nations people advise the Parliament on how their conditions and services should be improved rather than what we have been doing since this land was colonised!

I hope all parliamentarians follow the advice of the First Nations elders at the opening of the 47th Parliament and that this Parliament is truly a historic one?

MORE COMMENT

For a decade the previous government has done the wrong thing about the environment and climate.

Incredibly Ms Sussan Ley has now stated (July 26) "I'm proud of our record on the environment". This comes after the new government released the State of the Environment report that Ms Ley commissioned.

It was a damning indictment of inaction. I am dismayed that this person continues to represent us in Parliament.

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