I don’t know what facts you base your over confident statement that Labor will be voted out because they terminated Inland Rail at Parkes.
On the contrary, it would have been a huge blow to their recent reputation for economic management if thet had allowed the bottomless sink hole of the Inland Rail project to suck up even more billions. Inland Rail‘s plan beyond Parkes would be sinking in the swamps long before they got to the QLD border. It was a fundemental error to choose that route when they did, and not have the economic sense to admit their error.
Having Barnaby Joyce as the dominant Minister for the project, and using his partisan political influence as Deputy PM at the time, it was “London to a brick” that the Inland Rail project could not be completed past Parkes, within an acceptable extra huge cost overun, or delivering the solution less than 5 – 10 years for the stages north of Parkes.
Re-commissioning the GNR through New England from Armidale to the QLD border, then 2 dual gauge lines to Toowoomba and Brisbane make so much more sense.
We have called it the GNR Freight Artery. It has the potential to become valuable infrastructure asset for the eastern side of Australia.
Inland Rail “dropped the ball” with their project. But a Public Private Partnership (PPP) involving a world leading rail engineering partner and one of the Australian Govt‘s agencies, will stun Australians by how fast a big, international partner can design, build, commission and possibly operate as a non-exclusive freight operator between QLD and NSW, then onto VIC, SA and WA.
John Young
Project Manager
New England Network
yindi.org
24-may-2026