Agricultural
24 May, 2026
Mayor joined Inland Rail push back in Canberra
Gilgandra Mayor Doug Batten was among a chorus of voices in Canberra calling for the Inland Rail to be funded
On Wednesday, May 13, Gilgandra Shire Council's mayor Doug Batten joined with other mayors at a press conference hosted by leader of The Nationals, senator Matt Canavan, senator Bridget McKenzie, federal member for Riverina, Michael McCormack, and member for Parkes, Jamie Chaffey in Canberra. The party hosted mayors from Gilgandra, Parkes, Narrabri and Warrumbungle shires, as well as National Farmers Federation (NFF) president, Hamish McIntyre, in protesting the federal government's recent decision to drop funding for the completion of the Inland Rail Project. Also last week The Nationals launched a petition to rescue the Inland Rail.
Federal member for Parkes, Jamie Chaffey, said he was very proud to lead a delegation of some of the councils that have been affected by this terrible decision from an Albanese Labor government that only cares about metropolitan areas and they completely forget all about regional economies.
"Last night, (May 12), treasurer Jim Chalmers put down the budget and he reaffirmed the announcement that was made by Catherine King that the Inland Rail Project would now be stopping anything north of Parkes. In the budget papers it says $4.4 billion has been taken away from that nation building project and we also see that $3.8 billion has gone into the suburban metro line in Melbourne.
"So again, for the people of the Parkes electorate, for those small businesses, the individuals, the councils, this is reaffirming our thoughts that the Labor government completely don't care about regional communities or productivity in this country. A nation building project like the Inland Rail certainly would increase productivity and it would put downward pressure that we're seeing on the debt of this nation," said Mr Chaffey.
Gilgandra mayor, Doug Batten said he'd like to thank the minister for kicking the guts out of our shire.
"We're just a small shire of four and a half thousand people, but for 10 years we've been working consistently to support the government on this Inland Rail Project. We've just let a tender for the establishment of an industrial subdivision. We've just built four deepwater bores, three of them successful, that would provide water for the Inland Rail construction without impacting the groundwater of the stock and domestic supplies of our rural producers.
"Speaking of our rural producers, they have come on board with this project. In some cases, it's really decimated their property. They've come on board because they can see the freight benefit of Inland Rail through Narrabri into the Port of Newcastle. That doesn't happen now. We'll continue to send trucks in their hundreds across the Goulburn Highway into Newcastle. The whole project was a once in a lifetime opportunity for our small community to take benefit of this life-changing project and so thanks again minister," said mayor Batten.
Warrumbungle mayor, Katherine Rindfleish spoke about the cancellations' impact in her shire, specifically Baradine. "Our shire on the western end, at a small town called Baradine, where many farmers were preparing for this to come through to lighten the load of the semi-trailers and the trucks that come through our shire, especially our main street of Coonabarabran. It could reduce the trucks by a hell of a lot, considering that the government will not put its funding for our bypass. We are the ones that have to maintain our roads to be able to have those trucks come through," she said.
"We always have accidents and we were hoping with the Inland Rail, it would reduce the accidents in NSW and fatalities on the roads. Our small town of Baradine have been ramping up for many years for this to happen. A very small town, small businesses that were doing their best to meet the requirements of what was going to happen with Inland Rail and it is disgusting now that it has just been cut and funding being challenged to other people."
Senator Bridget McKenzie, thanked the mayors and Mr Chaffey for letting the country and the government know the "human toll of the decision they have callously made to cancel the Inland Rail north of Parkes".
"You've heard about the human toll in terms of road toll and the state of our roads. The freight task that the NFF has actually outlined that's ahead of us, not just this year, over the forward estimates, but for decades to come, that this project was meant to deal with. That is all lost now, that opportunity.
"This was a project to get 200,000 trucks off our freight route north and south, to reduce the human road toll, but importantly to also reduce emissions, something the government says they actually care about.
"In the budget they didn't just cancel the Inland Rail and its benefits, they also cut almost five billion dollars from road funding from every state and territory and they also jacked up the price of flying out of the country and the passenger movement charge, that's almost going to be half the ticket price to get to Bali for a family of four going forward.
"Less than two per cent of the federal budget's infrastructure funding goes to the regions. We produce a hell of a lot of the wealth for this country through our mining and agriculture industry, through our brain and our hard work. For this government to somehow assume we're going to continue to be able to do what we do in the regions for this country over the forward estimates but into the decades to come without Canberra recognising that and investing in us, just shows you how out of touch this government is. They talk a lot about intergenerational advantage or disadvantage. Well, the Inland Rail was an intergovernmental project, one that the prime minister himself supported when he was infrastructure minister, one that this prime minister and his infrastructure minister committed to once they won government.
"On the back of that commitment over subsequent governments, these communities have invested. Their small businesses have ramped up. Councils have used ratepayers' money to build precincts in these local communities to drive that economic advantage over the decades to come. That has all been slashed because of this PM and his infrastructure minister.
"We will overturn this decision, we will rescue Inland Rail and if you care about this project, please sign our petition. In less than 36 hours, over 1200 Australians have put their names to this to say this isn't good enough, we deserve better and we encourage others to do the same," said senator McKenzie.
