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    VITAL LINK: A floundering Murray Basin Rail Project combined with the global COVID-19 pandemic has prompted Victoria’s peak farmer group leader to stress the importance of transport links.

AgLife: Jochinke: Transport links projects a must for economy

A report into a floundering Murray Basin Rail Project combined with the global COVID-19 pandemic has prompted Victoria’s peak farmer group leader to stress the importance of transport links.

Victorian Farmers Federation president David Jochinke said an Auditor General assessment of the rail project, MBRP, had revealed it was three years behind schedule and had exhausted 87 percent of its allocated $381.5-million without a completion date in sight.

He said he was concerned the project had been on hold since mid-2018.

“The MBRP is a once-in-a-generation project to create a fit-for-purpose regional rail network in Victoria and the current COVID-19 pandemic has exposed just how vital transport links are to our food supply,” he said.



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“This is a nation-building project. At a time when our economy is in crisis, it is projects like this that are essential for our future prosperity.

“The Victorian Government should be thinking about the projects that it will bring on line to support our economy through bushfires and now COVID-19. 

“We will come out of Novelcorona and when we do, it’s projects like this that we need to have ready to go.”

Mr Jochinke said the Murray Basin Rail Project would reduce transport-logistics costs for industries and primary producers and ensure the rail network could meet future freight demands of the state.

“The government estimated the MBRP would lift efficiency by 15 percent and allow for an additional 500,000 tonnes of grain to be transported by rail each year,” he said. 

“Not only does this project have significance for rural communities with an estimated 280 construction jobs, but it is also important for Melburnians who will benefit from fewer trucks on the road, especially to Geelong.  

“We want it finished. It will get freight off road, reduce road damage and improve road safety as well as getting agricultural exports to port quicker and cheaper. 

“Melbourne is getting tens-of-billions of dollars in transport infrastructure upgrades. 

“Regional Victoria just wants its fair share. This project is a no brainer.” 

Premier Daniel Andrews made a commitment to the project on Monday August 17, 2015, promising to ‘…fix the missing links in our freight network and connect regional Victoria to the ports of Portland, Geelong and Melbourne’.

On February 24 this year at a VFF Grains Conference, members unanimously resolved to demand the government adhere to its commitment to standardise the remaining broad-gauge lines and complete the link through Ballarat to Geelong.

Victorian Opposition leader Peter Walsh launched a scathing attack on the Labor government’s handling of the project.

Mr Walsh said the Victorian Auditor-General’s Office, VAGO, finding confirmed the worst for producers and stakeholders in north-west Victoria.

“Labor has no plan and no money to get the basin rail project back on track,” he said.

Mr Walsh said the report had revealed the project had ‘not met scope, time, cost or quality expectations’. 

He said it also showed ‘completion of the MBRP is a year overdue, with over twice the original budget now estimated as necessary to complete the project to its original approved scope’.

He said VAGO also found delays and coster-runs had worsened due to ‘ineffective contract management, project management and project execution by V-Line’ and responses to Federal Government requests for information from the State Government ‘were not always forthright or timely’.

Mr Walsh and Opposition transport infrastructure spokesman David Davis took aim at Transport Infrastructure Minister Jacinta Allen, accusing her of attempting in parliament to smear the credibility of the Auditor-General and demanding she take responsibility for the project’s position.

The entire March 25, 2020 edition of The Weekly Advertiser is available online. READ IT HERE!

The entire March 25, 2020 edition of AgLife is available online. READ IT HERE!