Greens enlist Brown for final push

Federal Senator Bob Brown has called on a prospective NSW Coalition government to back high-speed rail for NSW’s east coast.

The investment would act to reduce a forecast increase in aircraft noise for inner-west residents, he told attendees at a Greens community barbecue in Haberfield on February 19.

“Some 280,000 aircraft movements out of Mascot are projected to increase to more than 400,000 in coming years. The pressure of noise is growing – high-speed rail will reduce that projected increase in air transport noise,” he said.

“The Japanese got high-speed rail in 1964. The Chinese have trains travelling at more than 500 km/h. Spain has an extensive high-speed rail system that has taken more than 20 per cent of passengers out of the air. Yet both the big parties voted down a study into high-speed rail in the Senate – before coming around to the Greens position.”

According to Senator Brown, a high-speed train would help dramatically reduce passenger numbers on the Sydney-Melbourne air corridor, currently the fourth-busiest in the world.

Greens candidate for Balmain, Jamie Parker, said the state Coalition needed to get behind the proposal and offer support to the Federal Government to ensure it went ahead.

“The NSW Government will have important roles to play, such as helping to identify and quarantine the rail corridor and provide financial backing,” he said.

High-speed rail is currently the subject of a feasibility study being conducted by Infrastructure Partnerships Australia. The responsible minister is the federal member for Grayndler, Anthony Albanese.

Senator Brown also urged voters to consider the likelihood of a Coalition majority in both houses of parliament, and said The Greens represented an important check on untrammelled power.

“I was in the Federal Parliament when there was a Howard Government majority,” he said. “They rammed through WorkChoices, sold off Telstra… it was an opportunity to treat parliament as a ‘rubber stamp’ and for the executive to do what it wanted at the behest of big and powerful influences. That same prospect is a real one in NSW, and voting Green is a big hedge against an opposition which is not putting its cards on the table.”