I am mad… really mad. Steam engine clouds coming out my ears. To me it all boils down to a lack of respect and appreciation for agriculture. And it is all about trains.

Last week the Andrews government broke its promise to finish the upgrade of the Murray Basin Rail network. 

It’s gone cap in hand to the Commonwealth to ask for another $200-odd million to re-build some track and infrastructure, but the original promise to standardise the broad gauge lines has been dumped. So that means the key sections of upgrade in Victoria’s north-west won’t go ahead.

The majority of the Labour government’s city voters wouldn’t know or care about it, so no great political loss there. But it’s a huge loss to our grain industry, the environment and our country roads.

In the words of Victorian Farmers Federation president David Jochinke: “It’s pretty disgusting really… It’s about upgrading broad gauge lines to make them workable. The intention of this upgrade was to upgrade all of the rail network so during an export season we can put as much grain as possible on rail, taking the pressure off our crumbling road network and also making those roads safer.”

All of us who live in grain growing areas have witnessed the huge toll grain trucks take on our roads. You just have to look at what happens in one season to routes into grain receival sites to see the bitumen splitting, sinking and breaking away to make for some pretty dangerous stretches of road.

Not to mention the amount of diesel fuel trucks are guzzling and emitting carbon into the atmosphere. Put the grain on rail and help reduce greenhouse gases. It’s not rocket science. 

The tracks are in such a parlous state that in hot weather, grain freight trains can be restricted to 20-kilometres an hour for fear of sparking bushfires. What a joke that we still don’t have standardised rail gauges and a decent rail network to transport the very produce that is going to lead Australia out of this COVID-induced economic recession. 

Couldn’t the government help farmers create wealth by doing what should have been done years ago and at the same time create jobs in regional Victoria? With governments throwing around billions of dollars during this pandemic, it doesn’t seem to be a lot to ask.

David Jochinke is trying to put a positive spin on it that it’s not all over yet. But I’ll bet my bottom dollar that our Premier has run a red line through the proposal and it’s dead in the water. He’s not one to back down once he’s made a decision.

So thanks for nothing, Dan. Yet again, agriculture gets a slap in the face and has to go it alone. 

Surely a fundamental duty of State Governments is to maintain a healthy and wealth creating transport system? Not, apparently, if you’re out of that ‘ring of steel’ around Melbourne.

RELATED: Rail plan shortcoming

The entire October 28, 2020 edition of The Weekly Advertiser is available online. READ IT HERE!

The entire October 28, 2020 edition of AgLife is available online. READ IT HERE!