TURNBULL TURNS HIS BACK ON ILLAWARRA TRAIN SERVICES

14 March 2018

Labors Sharon Bird, Stephen Jones and Fiona Phillips said Malcolm Turnbull had turned his back on better rail services on the South Coast Line.

Commuters in Wollongong and the Shoalhaven will again miss out under Turnbull and the Liberals after it was revealed the Government had failed to deliver any funded projects for the region under the Faster Rail Prospectus.

Turnbull has no credibility on delivering better transport links for people living in the Illawarra. Since 2013, the Liberals have cut funding for rail and other infrastructure and now forgotten the region completely.

The fact is the Liberals have left projects like the Maldon-Dombarton rail project sitting idle for more than a decade.

Federal Labor has long supported this project. At the last Federal election, Labor committed to $50 million in funding and to working with the private sector to finally build the stalled project.

The previous Federal Labor Government provided $25.5 million in 2011 for planning, geotechnical and engineering studies and then committed a further $50 million in 2013 to progress the project. As soon as the Liberals were elected they cut this funding.

If Malcolm Turnbull wants to be taken seriously by commuters across the Illawarra and Shoalhaven then he must stop the empty rhetoric, fund the Maldon-Dombarton rail project and start delivering on the issues that matter for local people.