Shadow Minister Media Releases
Coalition Will Oppose Rail Corridor Sell Off (9 October 2009)
The NSW Coalition will be opposing the NSW Labor Government’s legislation which enables rail lines all over NSW to be declared ‘disused’ and the line and corridors to be sold off, the Shadow Minister for North Coast, Don Page, said today.
Mr Page said currently before a rail line can be removed in NSW, there has to be a specific Act of Parliament to enable that particular line to be removed. Existing legislation is designed to specifically prohibit the sort of short-sighted decisions the NSW Labor Government now seeks to implement through its new legislation.
“The Casino-Murwillumbah rail corridor is an important piece of infrastructure for our region and should be preserved for when a more far sighted NSW Government re-introduces commuter and tourist services on the line and connects up with the Queensland line coming down to Coolangatta”, Mr Page said.
“If the NSW Government wants to convert a particular line into a rail trail, a walking track or a horse riding train in the southern part of the State, they can do so under current legislation via the Parliamentary process, ie a specific Act of Parliament”, he said.
“Assurances by this Labor Government that they would consult before tearing up the line and flogging off the land are not worth the paper they are written on”, he said.
“Look at the assurances they gave before the 2003 State election that they would not take away the Casino-Murwillumbah train. After the election they did exactly the opposite”, he said.
“The NSW Liberal and Nationals will oppose Labor’s legislation and we hope to get enough support from the cross-benches in the Legislative Council (Upper House) to defeat the legislation”, Mr Page said.
“The Coalition and the Greens are opposed to Labor’s legislation (ie 15 and 4 votes). We would need only 3 more votes to defeat it”, he said.
Those who need to be lobbied are the Hon Fred Nile (Christian Democrat), Hon Gordon Moyes (Independent) and the two Shooters Party representatives, Hon Roy Smith and Hon Robert Brown.
