Treasurer Statement: Bligh Government committed to Northern Missing Link

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Treasurer
The Honourable Andrew Fraser

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Bligh Government committed to Northern Missing Link

Treasurer Andrew Fraser today confirmed that the government was committed to building the Northern Missing Link project.

?We are proceeding with the Northern Missing Link project, including the doubling of Abbot Point Coal Terminal,?? he said.

??Yesterday was the date the current contracts with coal companies expire, but we have offered (through Ports Corporation of Queensland) to extend the contracts for another three months, with a further three month extension beyond that (ie to June) as we seek to provide every opportunity to the coal companies to commit to the timing and scope of the project.

??The coal companies have come to the government (through QR and Ports Corporation) saying that they now have very different tonnage profiles for the coming years.

??The downturn in the resources sector is massively reshaping the sort of volumes the coal companies believe they will need.

??Whereas we previously faced infrastructure bottlenecks, there is now going to be 30 million tonnes of spare capacity on the network this financial year.

Mr Fraser said that coal tonnage forecast for the first two years of the project was 90% lower than what was originally requested.

??We are committed to building the link, the volume it carries will be determined by what capacity the coal companies believe they want.

??In short, we will build what they want when they decide they want it.

Mr Fraser confirmed that no QR employee would lose their job.

??The alliances with the construction companies for the project remain in place,?? he said.

??The early works project is nearing completion.

??We announced the early works program previously to prepare the site for construction.

??As the early works program concludes the construction companies who are part of the alliance will seek to redeploy their staff.??