Labor’s Minister for Ports and Freight Melissa Horne has clearly run out of ideas on how to better move freight around the state.
Under questioning at PAEC this evening, Minister Horne admitted that the “announcement” she made earlier today about connecting Austrack in Somerton to the Port Rail shuttle Network was in fact nothing new and had been previously announced in 2018.
In August 2018, then Minister Luke Donnellan announced $16.2 million had been awarded to Austrack at Somerton and a further $9.5 million to SCT in Altona to connect their facilities to the rail network.
Labor has had six years to sort Port Rail Shuttle out, but to date, less than 20 per cent of work has been completed. Under questioning this evening, the Minister couldn’t explain why it is so delayed.
Comments attributable to Shadow Minister for Ports and Freight, Roma Britnell:
“Labor is all talk when it comes to rail freight and now the well of ideas is running so dry they have to recycle something from two years ago.
“Melissa Horne has again proven she is not across her brief – she couldn’t answer basic questions about why a key project in her portfolio is seemingly stalled – in the meantime trucks thunder through suburban streets, in her own electorate taking goods to and from the port.
“If Labor were really committed to using more trains to move freight to and from the port, we wouldn’t still be talking about starting work on the Port Rail Shuttle six years after it was first funded.”
