[Greens-Media] Senate calls on government to get on track with high speed rail

[Drummond, Sam (Sen J. Rice)]

MEDIA RELEASE

Senate calls on government to get on track with high speed rail

The Senate has called on the Abbott government to immediately establish an authority to commence work on the planning on an East Coast High Speed Rail network.

The Greens motion passed with the backing of Labor and support of key crossbenchers.

"Today the senate has urged the Abbott government to get on track towards high speed rail on the east coast," said the Greens spokesperson for transport and infrastructure Senator Janet Rice.

"High speed rail will revolutionise the way we travel along the east coast, making it cheaper, cleaner and faster to travel between major and regional cities.

"With the support of such a wide cross-section of the parliament, we're now on the right track for high speed rail."


Text of motion


To move that the Senate-
(a) notes that:
(i) discussions about East Coast High Speed Rail (HSR) have been going on for many years, and
(ii) under this Government there has been no meaningful action to progress East Coast HSR, and that ongoing delays raise the possibility of a proposed route being developed by other interests; and
(b) calls on the Government to immediately establish a High Speed Rail Authority in legislation to formalise discussions with state, territory and local governments, as well as industry and the community, to commence work on preserving the HSR corridor and progress other early planning, so that environmental and social impact studies can commence in 2015.