Rail campaign history updated The Queensland State election was held on 21 March 2009, and the state seat of Glass House, in which the Caboolture to Beerburrum rail duplication works were occurring, was won by the local LNP candidate Andrew Powell. The Labor party went on to win the election and just 24 days later, on the 14 April 2009, all works stopped on this rail duplication project. The rail duplication works to Landsborough were scheduled for completion by 2012. The Hon Paul Lucas MP, then Minister for Transport and Main Roads, issued a media statement on Monday August 14, 2006: [4] It said; Minister for Transport and Main Roads Paul Lucas said today that plans had been approved for a new rail corridor between Beerburrum and Landsborough. Mr Lucas said that commuters were now a step closer to a high speed rail service between Brisbane, Caloundra and Maroochydore. “Construction of the $550 million rail corridor is expected to start in early 2009 and be completed by mid-2012,” the Minister told State Parliament today. On Monday 29 August 2005, Mr Lucas described the Caboolture to Landsborough section of track as one of the weakest links in the Queensland rail network!” It is clear that the rail duplication works were to continue on to Landsborough, and a contract had been signed with the TrackStar Alliance to build these works. No explanation was ever given for the stoppage. This was despite the fact that a Qld. Dept. of Transport and Main Roads, Ministerial Briefing Note obtained by Mr Jeff Addison, under a 8 March 2011 Right to Information (RTI) request and titled ‘Caboolture to Beerburrum Track Duplication Project’, dated June 2009 states; “The benefits of increased capacity will not be fully realised until the next stage (Beerburrum to Landsborough) duplication is undertaken.” In other words, it admits that the rail duplication works that stopped suddenly at Beerburrum in April 2009, will achieve little - if anything - for increased capacity, until the remaining section to Landsborough is built. These works to date had cost $298 million. In 2007, the Landsborough to Nambour - Initial Advice Statement by Arup Engineers, called for the rail line to be duplicated from Landsborough to Nambour, and warned of adverse socio-economic effects should the North Coast Line (NCL) between Landsborough and Nambour not be upgraded. On 19 December 2010, Mr Jeff Addison, a Sunshine Coast commuter advocate and prominent public campaigner for the rail duplication works wrote to the then Liberal party federal member for Fairfax, Alex Somlyay MP, to discuss the federal funding case for the North Coast Line (NCL) and to request a meeting with the Hon. Anthony Albanese MP, (Labor) then Minister for Infrastructure and Transport and the Hon. Simon Crean MP, then Minister for Regional Australia, Regional Development and Local Government. The rail line is a part of the National Land Transport Network and part of a significant shared freight artery for the east coast of Australia, from Sydney to Cairns. On the 21 March 2011, Mr Addison received a reply from Mr Albanese, inviting Mr Addison to make a submission on the 22 February 2011 draft National Freight Strategy, to Infrastructure Australia. Mr Albanese responded that “The timing for delivery of these projects is a matter for the Queensland Government. I recommend that you raise this matter directly with the Queensland Government.” As advised, Mr Addison lodged a submission to Infrastructure Australia (IA) on 29 April 2011 and sought a meeting with Queenslands Transport Minister, the Hon. Annastacia Palaszczuk. member for Inala. A subsequent follow up of this IA submission revealed it had not been received by the due date (end of April 2011). The submission was not received by IA due to a technical glitch in the email address system. It was finally confirmed as received on 9 May, 2011. Mr Somlyay requested that Mr Addison gather together as many state MPs who would support the case for the rail duplication, to attend a meeting to be held at his Maroochydore office. On 15 March 2011, a meeting and MS PowerPoint presentation was made by Mr Addison. Attendees were Andrew Powell MP, Fiona Simpson MP, Steve Dickson MP, Jarrod Bleijie MP and Tracy Davis MP. The meeting was hosted by Alex Somlyay MP. The presentation was put forward highlighting the case for (part) federal funding of the rail duplication works. It was agreed that once costs and LNP policy announcements were made, then an approach could be made to Mr Albanese. The LNP (Andrew Powell MP) put a Question on Notice (No. 405) to the then Qld Transport Minister on the costs of the duplication works and this was expected to be answered by 27 April, 2011. A specific answer to the question was not received [5]and no further response was pursued on this matter. On Saturday 4 December 2010, a public meeting was held to discuss amendments to the train timetables for the Caboolture and Sunshine Coast rail lines at the Nambour Community Centre. The express services that once ran from Caboolture to Bowen Hills (20 stations) were to be removed for all but the 2 (at that time) Gympie North trains, and replaced by shorter express legs from Caboolture to Northgate (14 stations) and Northgate to Petrie (9 stations). There was anger at the Nambour Community Centre meeting that these moves would create overcrowding on the Sunshine Coast line trains due to the extra passengers entering the train at the 6 to 11 extra stops now added. The claims were seemingly ignored, possibly due to the fact that there would be extra services put on between Caboolture and the City during peak times. The new timetables were rolled out on 6 June 2011. As predicted by commuters, there was massive overcrowding experienced on the new 5:18pm Roma St to Nambour train. The 5:19pm Petrie service also experienced massive overcrowding. Train carriages were packed with 140 passengers per car, around 840 people per 6 car train. This new service replacing the former 5:16pm 20 station express service. It received widespread media attention. Stories appearing in the Sunshine Coast Daily [6] and in the Courier-Mail [7]. Local ABC radio station 90.3 Coast FM also airing the story. On 4 December 2010, a letter was written and circulated to commuters, addressed to the then Transport Minister, the Hon. Rachel Nolan MP, to protest at the proposed timetable changes and warning of the crowding issues that were sure to follow. It also lamented the 15% fare hikes and their impacts on long-haul commuters. It was ignored. A concerted public campaign was launched, including a personal invitation to the new Transport Minister, the Hon. Annastacia Palaszczuk to observe the crowding herself. A letter and attached photographs having been sent to the Minister that first night. To her credit she did so, and on the afternoon of 7 June 2011 the Minister came down and observed the situation at Platform 6 Central Station, for herself. On 17 March 2011 a train boycott was held in protest over savage 15% Go card fare increases and the loss of discounted weekly, monthly, 3, 6 and 12 month tickets. This was led by rail commuter Toni Carroll, and received widespread publicity on local television news, radio and print media. On Wednesday 29 June 2011, in response to the severe overcrowding of June 6, a media release announced the changes [8]. This was a great win for literally long-standing commuters. On Monday 11 July 2011, in response to the massive crowding, 2 new services were initiated to the Sunshine Coast. One was an extension of the 5:00pm City to Caboolture service, now going to Nambour. These new 6 car services, departing Roma St at 5:00pm and 5:24pm, were comfortably full from their very first day of operation. The Transport Minister herself travelling on the 5:24pm service from Central Station, egressing at Northgate. It was on that service that Mr Addison requested a meeting directly with the Transport Minister to raise his concerns. 2 previous requests through his local MP, Andrew Powell, having been rejected. In July 2011 a submission was put to the LNP State Conference, held in Brisbane. The original written proposal submitted was this: That this Convention of the LNP recommends that the next LNP State Government and/or the next Coalition Commonwealth Government adopts a policy to resume the rail duplication works for the North Coast Line (NCL) from Beerburrum to Nambour on the Sunshine Coast as a matter of high priority. It was passed virtually unanimously. On Tuesday 30 August 2011, Jeff Addison met with the then Transport Minister, Annastacia Palaszczuk, to put forward the case for rail duplication. He presented The Sunshine Coast Case Report highlighting the facts and quoting government documents that support the case. That report is found here, under his Rail Back on Track blog pseudonym, Fares_Fair. [9]. Throughout this period many major rail delays were being experienced by commuters due to problems caused by lack of maintenance, signal failures, electrical problems and regular rail crossing boom-gate crashes. The first of what would become 6 petitions and/or e-Petitions were launched to protest the ongoing regular faults and inherent rail reliability issues on the Caboolture/Sunshine Coast line. There has been no less than 6 paper and electronic petitions since February 2011, calling for the Beerburrum to Nambour rail duplication works to be brought forward. There were no less than 4 Questions on Notice, by both sides of parliament on this issue; QoN1136 (21/8/2007); QoN1484 (10/10/2007); QoN405 (24/03/2011) & QoN1320 (4/08/2010). 3 petitions were sponsored by Andrew Powell MP, LNP member for Glass House, and now Minister for Environment and Heritage Protection, whilst he was in opposition. 3 petitions were sponsored by Peter Wellington MP, the Independent member for Nicklin. All 6 Petitions (2 paper and 4 electronic) since February 2011 have called for the same thing, that is to fast track the rail duplication works to Nambour. e-Petition 1565-10 [10] e-Petition 1712-11 [11] e-Petition 1795-11 [12] Paper Petition 1897-12 [13] e-Petition 1882-12 [14] Paper Petition 1955-12. A response to this was tabled 20 September 2012 by the Hon. Scott Emerson MP, Minister for Transport and Main Roads. On 9 November 2011, the then (Labor) Treasurer, the Hon. Andrew Fraser MP released the Coordinator-General’s report on the Environmental Impact Statement for the Landsborough to Nambour rail project. (see opening remarks). This document gave approval for the works to proceed, however it was highly unusual given that there was no money or timeframe allocated for these works to start. This EIS report is due to expire after 4 years and so on the 9 November 2015, it will become defunct and a new report will have to be produced. On 22 December 2011, Jeff Addison wrote to the leader of the LNP in Queensland, Campbell Newman, requesting a meeting to discuss this issue and present the case for the rail duplication to him personally. Mr Newmans team replied on 8 February 2012, stating; ..Mr Newman would like me to make you aware that he is in contact with the Shadow Minister and looks forward to working with Mr Emerson and his policy committee regarding this issue. Thank you again for taking the time to contact us and bring this issue to our attention. I invite you to contact us again at a later date to discuss the progress of these issues. On the 21 February 2012, Mr Addison met with the Hon. Peter Slipper MP (Fisher) to put forward the case for federal funding of the rail duplication. Mr Slipper was at that time Speaker of the House of Representatives. It was to request a meeting with the Hon. Anthony Albanese MP member for Grayndler and Minister for Infrastructure and Transport (also leader of the House). The request went unanswered - and after 16 weeks without reply, Mr Addison wrote directly to Mr Albanese on 25 June 2012. On 4 July 2012, a reply was received from the General Manager, Rail and Intermodal Branch, Nation Building - Infrastructure Investment, on behalf of Mr Albanese. The reply stated that the Minister was unavailable to meet in the near future due to other commitments. It advised Mr Addison to pursue the matter with Queenslands Transport Minister, Hon. Scott Emerson MP. After the Queensland State election of 21 March 2012, the LNP gained power with a massive majority. On Friday 30 March 2012, they appointed the opposition spokesman on Transport, the Hon. Scott Emerson MP, as the new Transport and Main Roads Minister. 6 Sunshine Coast MPs were also rewarded with cabinet portfolios, with one, the Hon. Fiona Simpson MP, member for Maroochydore, being made Speaker. An LNP State Government submission was subsequently lodged with Infrastructure Australia in August 2012, for funding under the Nation Building 2 program, for the rail duplication works from Beerburrum to Landsborough. These works now listed at a cost of $770 million. Mr Addison wrote to Mr Emerson (in his new role) and his office replied on 28 September 2012. It reiterated the State Governments timeline for completion of the works from Beerburrum to Landsborough by 2021, and Landsborough to Nambour by 2031, at a cost of $1.7 billion (July 2009 figure). These timeframes having been called into question many times by Andrew Powell MP, whilst in opposition. On 29 January 2013, Mr Addison contacted the office of the Shadow Minister for Infrastructure and Transport, the Hon. Warren Truss MP, federal member for Wide Bay to put forward the case for federal funding. He met with Mr Truss on 23 April 2013. Mr Truss agreed that it was worthy of consideration and that if the State Government put forward the issue in talks being held with the Coalition, then a federal coalition would consider it. On 10 June 2013, Mr Addison wrote to all 73 sitting LNP MPs informing them of the result of the meeting with Mr Truss, and appealed to them to act upon it. Of the 73 (email) letters sent to Queenslands Liberal National Party MPs, there were 24 replies, including 2 formal responses. On 14 July 2013 a formal response was received from the Hon. Andrew Powell MP, member for Glass House and Minister for the Environment and Heritage Protection. On 18 October 2013, Mr Addison received a formal reply from the Premier of Queensland, the Hon. Campbell Newman MP. In it he stated his support for vital infrastructure such as the NCL and thanked me for pursuing it at a federal level. The reply acknowledged that there was a Federal responsibility for the rail upgrade and confirmed that the Queensland State Government is lobbying the Federal Government for these upgrade works. They stated that the Minister for Transport, the Hon. Scott Emerson MP, member for Indooroopilly has asked the Department of Transport and Main Roads to find innovative ways to deliver projects, such as the North Coast Line rail upgrade. On Wednesday 12 March 2014, Queensland Treasurer, Hon Tim Nicholls MP (Clayfield) visits the Sunshine Coast and says that if we want projects e.g. like the rail duplication to Nambour, then the State Government needs to sell assets to reduce the current debt. In an ABC Sunshine Coast radio interview on Thursday 13 March 2014, and in a Sunshine Coast Daily article on Friday 14 March, 2014, p18. Story here https://twitter/Jeffrey_Addison/status/444212397499088896]https://twitter/Jeffrey_Addison/status/444212397499088896]https://twitter/Jeffrey_Addison/status/444212397499088896 Mr Addison called the linking of critical rail duplication with assets sales as political blackmail ABC Sunshine Coast radio political blackmail interview here: https://soundcloud/abc-sunshine-coast/mornings-jeff-addison-on-asset On Tuesday 18 March 2014, 90.3 Coast FM (ABC Sunshine Coast) played an interview on Mornings with Annie Gaffney. In it, the Qld Treasurer & Trade Minister, the Hon Tim Nicholls MP, was asked to respond to my claims of ‘political blackmail’ towards the Sunshine Coast. He says, and I quote verbatim; “Mr Addison still hasn’t found a solution to paying down the debt that would free up funds for the Queensland Government to be able to invest in infrastructure.” Mr Nicholls then says of Mr Addison; “He still has not provided a source of funding” and “He doesn’t have a solution for where the money’s coming from to pay for it.” Mr Nicholls full interview found here: https://soundcloud/abc-sunshine-coast/state-treasurer-tim-nicholls In response to the radio interview of Thursday 13 March 2014, Qld Parliament Speaker & Maroochydore State MP, Ms Fiona Simpson issued a Media Release on Friday 14 March 2014. In it she said she would like to see a Sunshine Coast infrastructure guarantee with the rail duplication at the top of the list for well costed and needed regional infrastructure. She stressed that the infrastructure had to be properly costed and necessary to economic growth. Hon. Ms Simpson Media Release; fionasimpson.au/News/LocalNews/tabid/69/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/1115/Simpson-urges-infrastructure-guarantee.aspx Astonishingly, in his Tuesday 18 March 2014 interview, Treasurer Tim Nicholls refused to give an infrastructure guarantee commitment as requested by the Hon Ms Simpson, this despite the fact that he had used it as a carrot just 6 days earlier. He stated that no decisions had been made on what the money would be used for. On 24 March 2014, the Sunshine Coast Daily printed a story on p3, headlined Newman asks for regions priorities. In it the Premier claimed not to know what the Sunshine Coast held as its 3 or 4 major priorities for the region moving forward. He claimed to be getting different stories from community leaders and organisations. That same day Sunshine Coast Mayor Mark Jamieson went onto ABC Sunshine Coast radio. ... Sunshine Coast mayor Mark Jamieson told ABC radio on Monday morning [24th March] that he was shocked by the Premiers comments. Look I was a little stunned, I must admit, Mr Jamieson said of the article in the Daily today. If the Premier is criticising the council for not outlining our vision... our priorities for the region, then he is wrong. I personally outlined our economic development strategy to the Premier, Mr Jamieson said. He said the strategy was the culmination of work by chambers of commerce, the development industry, community groups and the university. He said he had met with the Local Government Minister [David Crisafulli] to outline the regions priorities. Mr Jamieson said he had also set up a Sunshine Coast First group which aimed to unite the council with state and federal MPs, business leaders, chambers of commerce and peak development groups. He said if the Coasts six sitting MPs could not convey the regions needs, he did not know what more he could do ... A search through my mobile phone had found a photograph of a newspaper story that I had captured on 24 December 2013, where on p17, in an opinion piece by Mayor Mark Jamieson, he stated; “With my creation of Sunshine Coast First the region now speaks with one voice on major infrastructure needs, such as the widening of the Bruce Highway between Caboolture and the Coast, duplication of the railway to Nambour and funding to expand our airport.” Clearly there was a massive communication disconnect or confusion between our local MPs, the Mayor and the Premier. On Wednesday 26 March 2014, 4 Sunshine Coast MPs, interviewed on ABC Sunshine Coast radio were asked to list their key infrastructure priority for the region. Responses were tweeted by radio host, Annie Gaffney; Member for Caloundra Mark McArdle lists duplication of north coast rail line as top priority for the Coast. Member for Maroochydore Fiona Simpson says duplication of north coast rail line is a key priority for the Coast. Member for Buderim Steve Dixon lists duplication of north coast rail line as a key priority for the Coast. Member for Noosa Glen Elmes lists duplication of north coast rail line as an important key priority for Coast. Wants to see it go to Gympie. Member for Glass House Andrew Powell said he would provide a statement later on Member for Nicklin (Independent), Peter Wellington was attending a function at the time of going to air. Only 1 MP (out of 7) on the Sunshine Coast made no comment, member for Kawana Jarrod Bleijie I went on twitter to declare it #2tracks rail duplication day, as this was the first time they had all publicly announced it as an infrastructure priority. EDIT: Updated 27/03/2014 at 11:45pm
Posted on: Thu, 27 Mar 2014 22:40:20 +0000
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