Residents fighting to stop the intermodal at Moorebank have called for a federal parliamentary inquiry into the proposal.
A spokesperson for RAID Inc (Residents Against Intermodal Development in Moorebank) said that while the intermodal could cost state and federal taxpayers between $6 billion and $13 billion dollars, there was no guarantee it would result in an efficiency dividend in the supply chain across the road and rail transport network.
“One must ask who benefits from this deal,’’ the RAID Inc spokesperson said.
“Surely this is not business as usual, and that is why we support Anne Stanley, the Federal Member for Werriwa, and her call for ‘further investigation and proper transparent processes’.
“However we strongly suggest that Ms Stanley do more.
“We ask her to sit down with her colleagues Doug Cameron, Deborah O’Neill and Jenny McAllister and work with Senator Lee Rhiannon and the Senate cross bench to establish a parliamentary inquiry.
“We also call on Rod Sims and the ACCC (Australian Competition and Consumer Commission) to investigate Moorebank Intermodal Company and the ANAO Audit Report,’’ the spokesperson said.
The Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) has announced this week it will hold a second audit into the intermodal.
Ms Stanley has welcomed the second audit in a media release issued this week.
RAID Inc says the first ANAO review raised a number of concerns.
The review found “value for money progressively eroded’’ and ‘’the procurement process was not sufficiently competitive’’.
With “the open access arrangements applying to the IMEX and interstate terminals, but not the warehousing component of the Moorebank precinct”, the ANAO said it was unable to provide assurance that “the desired national productivity benefits of the project will be realised”.
“Our community looks forward to contributing to the second audit,” the RAID Inc spokesperson said.
