PRIME MINISTER
JOINT STATEMENT BY THE COMMONWEALTH, NEW SOUTH WALES,
VICTORIAN AND AUSTRALIAN CAPITAL TERRITORY GOVERNMENTS AND
THE VFT JOINT VENTURE ON PROCESSES FOR GOVERNMENT
COORDINATION AND FACILITATION OF THE VERY FAST TRAIN
PROPOSAL The Prime Minister, the Premiers of New South Wales and
Victoria and the Chief Minister of the Australian Capital
Territory met in Sydney today with the Joint Venture
partners to discuss future arrangements for coordination and
facilitation of Government consideration of the Very Fast
Train ( VFT) project.
The Heads of Government agreed to streamline mechanisms
across the four jurisdictions to assess effectively the
potential economic, environmental and social impacts of the
project. The processes developed today would allow
Government to respond quickly and consistently as the
information already provided by the VFT Joint Venture is
assessed, and as more information on the VFT becomes
available. The four Heads of Government agreed on a joint response to
the VFT Joint Venture partners' recent submission to each
Government on VFT processes. This will guide the future
direction of each Government's involvement with the VFT
project, and provide the VFT Joint Venture with a single
point of contact on most issues.
Each Government would, of course, retain jurisdiction for
areas for which it has sole responsibility and ultimately
would be responsible for those decisions. The Heads of
Government also reiterated each Government's current
position that the VFT concept deserves serious consideration
as a private sector project. The VFT Joint Venture has
approached the Commonwealth with suggested changes to the
tax regime, which the VFT Joint Venture intends to
facilitate the financing of infrastructure projects from
Australian private sector sources. The proposals are
complex and have far reaching implications for the
Commonwealth. The Commonwealth Government has agreed to
consider the proposals and to respond to the Joint Venture
early in 1991.
The Joint Venture has now submitted the Project Evaluation
Report ( PER) to the Commonwealth and State Governments.
Issues addressed by the PER include those required for a
43LAM It~ ffC~
decision to advance to Stage two ( eg project justification,
major route choice, right of way, project finance). The
second stage will involve a fully coordinated environmental
impact assessment and full public participation.
It was also agreed that the Heads of Agencies group
( comprising leading officials from each Government) which
exercises a general oversight of Government involvement with
the project, will become a standing committee of lead
officials to facilitate the VFT evaluation process and act
as the Governments' primary liaison point. The Commonwealth
Department of Transport and Communications would have the
role of chair, and the group would be supported by a joint
Commonwealth/ State/ ACT Task Force.
The four Governments acknowledged the need for public
exposure and announced that they encourage public briefings
by the Joint Venture and welcome public comments. The Heads
of Government noted that a number of public inquiries into
the VFT had concluded or were underway, and that there would
be full public participation under the Stage two
environmental assessment. The Joint Venture will be making
all information relevant to Government consideration
available to the Governments. It would also be publicly
available except where commerciality was at risk.
On timing, the Heads of Government agreed that it should be
possible to conclude Stage one with a response to the VFT
Joint Venture on the submissions already received by early
1991. The four Heads of Government also agreed to aim for
completion of the coordinated environmental assessment
process 10 months after the exhibition of the environmental
impact statement. This is within the Joint Venture's
requirements for completion of the process. The Joint
Venture advised that their target date for the start of
project operations was 1 December 1997.