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PRIME MINISTER ** CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY"*
SPEECH BY THE PRIME MINISTER, THE HON P. J. KEATING, MP
LAUNCH OF ONE NATION TRAIN, MELBOURNE, 4 JUNE 1995
1 think we might all be forgiven a smile of satisfaction today. From Tom
Hopkins who is 103 and first dreamt about this while driving locomotives
before the rest of us were born; to Gough Whitlam who is younger than Tom
but no less a dreamer of great things for Australia; to those of my own
generation who came to believe in them too and find ourselves privileged to
be the people who finally did it.
This is a great day for Australia and nothing less.
A standard gauge rail highway from Brisbane to Perth is a century old
Australian dream today it's an Australian reality.
Three years ago when we delivered a statement called One Nation. We
called it One Nation because we wanted to assert a simple idea that we are
stronger when we work as one.
One Nation imagined a stronger Australia an Australia that worked more
efficiently. The aim was to close the gaps between Australians the physical
gaps and the cultural ones.
To close them with railway lines and better road and airline systems; to close
them by social undertakings to help Australians on margins; and to close
them by reminding Australian men and women that for all the distance which
divides a West Australian from a Victorian or a South Australian from a
Queenslander, or a suburb of Sydney from a farm in Tasmania, we are all
Australians and we share a great common interest.
One Nation aimed at making Australia stronger and fairer.
And I think in the past three years we have made a lot of progress in this
direction we've got extraordinary growth in jobs and national economic
growth, we've got a new national training system, we've got nationwide labour
market programs, we've got a national competition policy, we've got the kind
of agreement on national goals we haven't had in a long time and we've got
a six and a half thousand kilometre standard gauge national rail highway from
Brisbane to Perth via Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide.
There is nothing like a train.
There is no symbol of progress like it. No symbol of unity like it no symbol
of strength.
But of course this One Nation train is much more than a great symbol.
It brings all Australians much closer together in a material way.
It will produce material benefits.
It will give us in the next century what we have been denied in this an
efficient national rail system.
Over three years we have spent $ 429 million to upgrade and invigorate
Australia's rail infrastructure.
We erected new bridges which could support greater loads travelling at
greater speeds.
We added crossing loops in key locations to eliminate delays.
We laid new low-maintenance sleepers, and constructed new track
alignments with fewer tight curves and flatter grades for a better ride.
The centrepiece of the rail infrastructure investment program was the
standardisation of the line between Melbourne and Adelaide the missing link
in a national standard-gauge rail network. And that's what we celebrate
today. Sixty kilometres of new track has been built, 30 kilometres converted to dual
gauge, and 740 kilometres regauged by moving the rails 6.5 inches closer
together.
We now have a great national asset.
With the National Rail Highway we can more fully harness the energy of
Australia.
It will buttress economic development and make us more flexible and
competitive. As our industry increasingly adopts a national dimension, so will
it be serviced by a truly national rail freight system.
Trains will be longer and their travel time shorter. The One Nation train slices
two hours off the Melbourne-Adelaide leg and eight hours off the Melbourne-
Perth trip.
It untangles Australia's railway tracks.
And it enables us to put the interstate rail freight system on a much more
efficient and competitive footing.
With the support of the States, we established the National Rail Corporation,
so that interstate shippers need only deal with one organisation rather than
four when moving goods around the country.
National Rail has set about renovating the institutional culture and work
practices of the Australian rail industry. With a ground-breaking enterprise
agreement and the introduction of best practices, the interstate rail freight
industry has been turned around.
And it will shortly be acquiring a lot more horsepower in the form of $ 400
million worth of new locomotives.
Locomotives which will be built and maintained in Australia: an investment
which is expected to create in excess of one thousand jobs. And the new
locos will be vastly more fuel efficient than the current fleet.
The Government is determined to press forward with efficiency gains. And
the surest way to increase in the railways is to promote competition on the
line. That's why the Minister for Transport has proposed that all the interstate track
be managed by a single organisation, Track Australia, ensuring competition
between existing and new rail operators.
That leaves rail operators to concentrate on the customers.
We devised One Nation to get Australia moving. One element of that was to
make the railways run more smoothly. But the commitment also required that
we improve air, sea and road transport, and dovetail them all together.
Today, after three years of work, the Australian people have a far more
integrated and cohesive transport system than ever before.
We have safer national roads, more efficient ports and a better aviation
system. And all these modes of transport are linked to each other.
This Dynon Road Freight Terminal is a good illustration of the distance we've
come in a very short time.
Before the One Nation investments the place was heavily under-capitalised
and lacked both effective lifting equipment and long tracks for the efficient
assembly of trains.
Now, the Terminal has new assembly tracks and highly effective mobile
gantries. And the whole operation is safer and better lit.
Before One Nation, containers arriving at the docks and destined for the rail
station had to be driven along a roundabout route of 2.5km, crossing
Footscray Road, the busiest truck corridor in Victoria.
Now, goods are delivered straight to the tracks via the newly-built Dock Link
Road. The Road cost $ 5 million, and it paid for itself within weeks of opening.
National Rail estimates a saving of $ 20 per container.
So this is One Nation at work.
And it means we can transport people and freight across the continent and
get it onto ships or planes for export faster, cheaper and more reliably.
The train I am about to board the One Nation train will be first to cross the
continent, via all State capitals, without interruption from break of gauge.
Construction of the national rail highway began a long time ago, and as I said
we are privileged to be part of the generation which completed it.
It has been a difficult journey. But then, the most worthwhile things are very
often the most difficult.
Many people deserve our congratulations today.
I've mentioned Gough Whitlam, who has never let up in his pursuit of national
gauge compatibility. Let me also pay tribute to Laurie Brereton, the Minister
who got the work done on time and on budget.
And speaking of work, let me thank the men and women of National Rail who
planned and co-ordinated the gauge standardisation.
And let me also thank everyone of those 3000 Australians who did the hard
physical tasks of the project.
I hope today that their satisfactions matches that of their fellow railway worker
from another age who is with us today Tom Hopkins.
Today is special because we have all been a part of a very long chapter in
Australia's story. And when we say that today we have ended the chapter,
we recognise that before us came countless Australians who down the years
worked towards the same goal and dreamt the same dream.
Our own and future generations of Australians will benefit from this One
Nation train, but I think we should launch it in the name of all those who came
before us.
As the train leaves Melbourne and moves on to Adelaide and Perth, Australia
will move with it.
It will bring Australians closer together, it will make Australia stronger.
And I hope it will inspire us to believe that much more in what we can do
when we think, plan and work as one nation.
Thank you.