1 Apr 2022: Commonwealth to Mint More 5c pieces to Fund Sunshine Coast Rail ...

[ozbob]

RAIL Back On Track Urges Commonwealth to Mint More 5c pieces to Fund Sunshine Coast Rail Line

1st April 2022

RAIL Back On Track (http://backontrack.org) a web based community support group for rail and public transport and an advocate for public transport passengers has called for the Commonwealth Government to fund the Sunshine Coast Rail line by minting more five cent pieces.

RAIL Back On Track welcomes the Commonwealth Government's firm $1.6 billion commitment to build rail to Maroochydore on the Sunshine Coast. As one of the fastest-growing regions in Australia it is a no-brainer to build this rail line to Maroochydore.

We urge the Commonwealth Government to speed up the minting of 5 cent pieces urgently, so that the project can go ahead.

A Queensland Government Minister – speaking to reporters in Brisbane today - confirmed that funding the Sunshine Coast rail line was a low priority, and could not at all be compared to other projects in and around Brisbane which also had no business cases such as a $450 million bus stop at Woolloongabba, The Gabba Stadium rebuild, or Line 3 of the Brisbane Metro.

"That's different - Brisbane starts with a letter B, and the Sunshine Coast starts with the letter S."
"The Letter S is lower down in the alphabet, so clearly it is a much lower priority project." The Minister said.

The Minister declined to give their name as their birth certificate had been submitted to and discussed in Cabinet, and as such, these details were now protected by Cabinet-in-Confidence secrecy provisions.
A spokesperson for the Queensland Treasury also confirmed that the Queensland Government simply had no cents to fund the project.

"The instructions to us are to pay for the Sunshine Coast Rail Line construction project in many bags full of 5c pieces, and unfortunately we don't have enough cents in Queensland to fund our share of this $3.2 billion project."

"The Commonwealth is responsible for the Mint in Canberra, and so this shortage of 5 cent pieces is a Commonwealth matter."

A spokesperson said that any further informal queries about the Sunshine Coast Rail line project should be directed to a government-associated e-mail address ' avocadotriangle6@chillimail.co.uk '

Reference:
1. Heavy passenger rail on track for Sunshine Coast

https://minister.infrastructure.gov.au/fletcher/media-release/heavy-passenger-rail-track-sunshine-coast

Robert Dow
Administration
admin@backontrack.org
RAIL Back On Track https://backontrack.org

[ozbob]

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