Mr DONDAS —My question is addressed to the Minister for Transport and Regional Development. Would the minister please inform the House of the progress of the Alice Springs to Darwin rail link? Also, could the minister advise us what other commitments are being taken in regard to the railway?

Mr VAILE (Transport and Regional Development) —I would like to thank the member for the Northern Territory for his question. I know that he and all his constituents in the Northern Territory are very interested in the outcome of this project. Last year the Prime Minister announced the Commonwealth would contribute $100 million towards this project. Expressions of interest to build the Alice Springs to Darwin rail link closed on 1 December 1997. More than 30 submissions were received by the AustralAsia Railway Corporation from a combination of 60 national and international corporations. A short list has been presented to the South Australian and Northern Territory governments.

The Commonwealth, together with the South Australian and Northern Territory governments, has committed $300 million towards this project—and this is being provided all by coalition governments. Compare that with the last promise that the Labor Party made with regard to this project in 1983 when Bob Hawke said:

I promise you that only the Labor Government can be trusted to build the Alice Springs to Darwin line.

Yet in 13 years of Labor government nothing was done. That was the last promise that the Labor Party made. But there is more. During the ALP conference on 21 January this year in Hobart—remember that fairly flat sort of an affair down in Tasmania—the South Australian Labor leader, Mike Rann, went on Adelaide radio and said:

. . . so we have secured a commitment from Kim Beazley for $300 million—up to $300 million if Labor is elected, to try and make sure that we actually get some tracks laid.

Is this the same sort of a promise that Bob Hawke made back in 1983? So the compere of that radio program came back and said:

So, Mike, this is in fact a formal commitment so, reading between the lines, if Labor is elected to power at the next federal election, that is a done deal?

And Rann started to back away. He said:

Well, what we did yesterday is commit the federal Labor Party—my resolution committed the federal Labor Party to providing the capital assistance necessary to ensure that the railway goes ahead.

Now we have the Leader of the Opposition making backroom deals with Mike Rann regarding this important project, promising him $300 million. We have not heard anything from the Leader of the Opposition about what is actually going to happen. The Labor Party's shadow spokesman for transport, in a press release, has said:

In all our discussions with industry, we have been told that more will be required. That is why Kim Beazley committed Labor to up to $300 million over four years.

Is this another unfunded commitment? Where is the money going to come from? The people should be asking the question: where is the money going to come from? The Labor Party is all over the place on this issue. The people in South Australia and the Northern Territory deserve a straight answer from the Labor Party on what they are going to do—or are they going to rely on what Bob Hawke said in 1983 and do nothing?