Labor Transport Minister, Mark Bailey, and the Labor Mayor for the Sunshine Coast, Mark Jamieson, are wrong to say the $1.6 billion investment from the former Coalition Government for heavy passenger rail to the Maroochydore CBD was unbudgeted.
Pictured here in black and white, you can see in Budget Paper No. 2 page 139 that this investment plan was fully budgeted for.
As for their argument that the business case on which it was based was a mirage, I remind them that both the Minister’s own department and the Mayor’s council were active participants in the exercise.
The Minister and the Mayor might want to give the new Federal Labor Government a free pass to ignore our residents need for a passenger rail line all the way to the Maroochydore CBD in time for the 2032 Games, but I won’t.
