MEMBER for Northern Victoria Tania Maxwell has put the botched Murray Basin Rail Project on her $77 million budget wishlist.
The Derryn Hinch Justice Party MP said completion of the Murray Basin Rail Project was vital to remove more than 20,000 heavy vehicle trips from roads, improve network efficiency and deliver a sustainable freight rail network for the future of the Victorian agriculture sector.
Ms Maxwell has sought $5 million from the Victorian Government to match Commonwealth funding for a re-examination of the project standardisation plan.
“The revised business case of 2020 noted performance issues persist with the network while it remains in a configuration state that was ‘not intended to be permanent’, and is shifting freight from rail to road,” she said.
Ms Maxwell said the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission recent stevedoring report showed a decline in freight load into Melbourne Port from 13.9 per cent in 2014 to 6.1 per cent in 2021.
“VicRoads data reports northbound traffic has tripled to 60,000 more trips each year in both directions, from 40 trucks a day in 2009 to 119 trucks in 2020 along the Sunraysia Highway.
“This increased, high-load traffic is impacting regional roads including damage to shoulders.”
Ms Maxwell said the Infrastructure Victoria Infrastructure for the Regions Report (December 2020) noted that freight volumes in regional Victoria were forecast to grow at an average rate of 1.5 percent each year between 2014 and 2051, and recommends rail as critical infrastructure to support agriculture, manufacturing, mining and energy sectors.
“The Sunraysia Mallee Port Link (SMPL) intermodal project could carry 60 per cent of 80,000 tonnes of annual freight loads in far north-west Victoria – creating jobs, reducing carbon emissions, boosting manufacturing, improving road safety and reducing the cost from paddock to port,” she said.
“This project requires the conversion of the Maryborough to North Geelong line to standard gauge.
“Ouyen Inc, as a stakeholder in the SMPL intermodal project, has provided some recommendations to government to solve issues relating to the Ballarat line that were one of the reasons for the revised business case.
“Examination of these solutions would provide certainty to the north west farm sector for the future.”
Ms Maxwell also put forward for State Budget consideration $35 million for a Mildura drug court and alcohol and other drugs rehabilitation unit.
