Senator ROBERTSON —Is the Minister representing the Minister for Transport aware of statements by the Northern Territory Chief Minister, Mr Everingham, that he intends to sue the Commonwealth in the High Court of Australia over an alleged breach of agreements on the Alice Springs-Darwin railway, and that there were precedents for the Commonwealth building State railway lines at its own cost, for example, the transcontinental line? Does the Minister see any basis of fact in these statements?

Senator GIETZELT —Senator Robertson has asked a question which clearly is of great interest to the residents of the Northern Territory. Of course, this matter has been substantially exaggerated by the Chief Minister of the Northern Territory. At no stage has the Government withdrawn its support for the building of the Alice Springs-Darwin railway. In the light of the information that became available to it after the election-instead of inheriting a $4.5 billion deficit it found itself faced with a $9.5 billion deficit-the Government has had to recast its attitude in respect of a whole number of public works activities. We have not withdrawn our support for the construction of the railway. What we have done is to suggest to the Northern Territory a new arrangement under which the railway can be built. As is usual with Mr Everingham, he shoots from the hip. He does not always speak with any degree of accuracy in his comments relating to his relationships with the Commonwealth Government. When he talks about more than one million Western Australians not contributing to the cost of the east- west transcontinental line he of course ignores the fact that one of the conditions that applied at the time of Federation was that the Commonwealth would accept its responsibilities in respect of the construction of the rail line from Western Australia to the east coast of Australia. Consequently, the Western Australian Government, having accepted its responsibility, provided out of its own funds for the construction of the rail line from Perth to Kalgoorlie.

Any suggestion that the Northern Territory is being treated differently from what Western Australia was at the time of Federation is incorrect. I remind the Senate that at the beginning of the century a lot of reluctant colonies had to be persuaded to come into the Federation. One of the conditions was that the Commonwealth accept responsibility in regard to the construction of that rail line. That is not the position with respect to the Northern Territory.

I remind honourable senators that the Commonwealth Government pays per capita to the Northern Territory something in excess of $5,600, which is five times the average amount paid to the other States per capita, in terms of tax reimbursements. So the Commonwealth has in no way reneged on its responsibilities. It has suggested a form of financing of that construction and has suggested to the Northern Territory Government that it has the legal power to raise the funds in the form of loans, either from the Commonwealth or elsewhere. The Commonwealth has indicated that it would assist in that process.

I also remind the honourable senator that the Commonwealth has already built the Tarcoola-Alice Springs section of 830 kilometres at no cost to the Northern Territory. The contribution sought from the Northern Territory should not be seen as a contribution of 40 per cent of the cost of construction. In real terms it represents only a contribution from the Northern Territory of some 25 per cent. Senator Kilgariff and his confreres in the Northern Territory, including Mr Everingham, are completely astray in their critisicisms of the attitude taken by the Commonwealth.

Senator ROBERTSON —Mr President, I ask a supplementary question which has been prompted by some of the comments by our friends on the other side of the chamber . I ask the Minister to indicate to us how much of the building of railways since 1911 has been initiated by the other party opposite?

Senator GIETZELT —The construction of railways has always been a responsibility of the States. Of course the Northern Territory wants to be regarded as a State. It is regarded by the Commonwealth as a State, and therefore it should accept its share of responsibility, as indeed all the States have done in regard to the construction of their public railway systems.