Transcript: Interview with Leon Byner, Radio FIVEaa, Adelaide

Subjects: AdeLINK.

LEON BYNER: Paul Fletcher has called in, Minister for Major Projects, good morning Paul.

PAUL FLETCHER: Good morning Leon. Look what we’ve just seen from Labor is a rushed commitment to the AdeLINK project. Let’s be clear, there’s no business case that has been prepared for this yet by the South Australian Government – in fact the South Australian Government in February this year said they were just starting to prepare the business case. So it hasn’t been prepared, it hasn’t gone to Infrastructure Australia, the federal government body that assesses these things. Now of course Mr Shorten and Mr Albanese consistently say – and we agree with them – that any project with funding over $100 million of Commonwealth money should go to Infrastructure Australia first before a commitment is made. So this is really a rushed commitment and they don’t seem to have an answer to the question of – how will the South Australian Government pay for the remaining cost?

LEON BYNER: Well clearly, we can’t afford to. We haven’t got the money.

PAUL FLETCHER: Well Labor says the total cost of this is going to be about $3 billion – they’ve pulled this figure of $500 million out of the air. Who are they suggesting should pay for the balance? This is unfortunately just Mr Shorten and Mr Albanese just splashing around cash and they’ll worry about how to pay for it later. These things need to be properly planned. The South Australian Government has announced it’s developing a business plan, and when that is ready to submit to Infrastructure Australia we will of course look at it with interest. But we must have a proper process here when we’re spending taxpayers’ money.

LEON BYNER: So you’re going to counter the offer from Bill Shorten with what?

PAUL FLETCHER: We’re making a significant commitment to South Australia with the announcement we made last week of $43 million towards the Flinders Link project, to extend the Tonsley Rail Line.

LEON BYNER: Of course Mr Albanese will claim – and already has – that you’ve taken money from another project you promised in order to do that.

PAUL FLETCHER: And what we are doing is delivering a significant project that will improve the connectivity of Flinders University and the Innovation Centre at Tonsley – but that is a project where there was a proposal put by the South Australian Government –  and we’re pleased to be working with the South Australian Government. What’s happening here is that federal Labor is desperate to have an announcement before the election and they rushed forward this commitment without the business planning having been done. We don’t even know what the cost benefit of this project is going to be.
Now look, the Turnbull government certainly supports public transport, we support light rail, there are other light rail projects around the country, for example the Canberra Capital Metro, ParramattaLight Rail, that are being funded, that have been through the proper process. But what we need to see first of all is a business case. That must be completed, that must come to Infrastructure Australia, and we must have an assessment of that. Instead what we’ve got is more Labor carelessness with public money – making a promise – that’s of course, $500 million they’re going to have to find – they haven’t told us where the money’s going to come from - but the key point is none of the planning work has been done on the AdeLINK project. So let the process go through rather than having Mr Shorten rushing to make an announcement when the details of the underlying project are not fully known.

LEON BYNER: Paul Fletcher thanks for calling in, that’s the Minister for Major Projects.