Page 613 - Week 03 - Wednesday, 21 March 1990
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use the excuse of a very fast train to do it. If we are really looking at a very fast train for its own advantages, then we would be looking at a route running down by the Hume Highway through Wagga and picking up what are already intensive areas of population - Albury, Wodonga, Shepparton and so on. Then we would have a sensible link where people could move very quickly between those major centres as well as between the two major Australian capitals and the national capital.
There are some very important questions to be asked and when I look at these questions and then look at Trevor Kaine's amendment, I find myself sickened because, in effect, he was the one who was talking about offering $20m to the - - -
Ms Follett: No, $30m.
MR MOORE: The man who offers $30m to the very fast train project is the same man who tells us we have got to have millions of dollars of cuts to education, to health. He is the same man who - - -
Mr Kaine: On a point of order, Mr Speaker, I made no such offer; I made no such statement; I am being misrepresented.
MR MOORE: This is the same man who is always talking about cuts, who says that the only way we can manage to deal with anything here is to slaughter the current education and health systems. The same man can turn around and suggest that $30m can go off to some private enterprise. This is the same man who will refuse to get 100 per cent betterment tax from a change of purpose clause on developers. He is not prepared to get those millions of dollars which would easily cover the sort of cuts that he wants to make.
There are certain things that he wants to do, so we have to be very careful with this very fast train project to ensure that people who are trying to make ends meet are not disadvantaged. We have to make sure that this is not just another method of taking money from those who have little and giving it to those who have plenty because should the very fast train take the eastern route that is what this is about.
Should it go down the Hume Highway, should it go through those other major areas, this would be a totally different story. In that case you would find general Australian support for what could be a useful and very special help for the communities of this area, as well as those in Sydney and Melbourne. Also, there would be some environmental advantages. Many environmentalists have been slow to point out some of the environmental advantages of the very fast train, which is superior to aeroplanes in respect of fuel consumption and numbers of people carried.
There are environmental advantages, but we have to make sure that they are recognised. We also have to be careful
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