Commuter car park rorts, sports rorts, emissions reduction scheme rorts (that don’t reduce emissions) and bike track rorts. The Morrison government can spend billions of taxpayers’ money on their rorts, they can waste $5.5 billion cancelling submarine contracts, billions can be found to upgrade train services from Sydney to Newcastle and from Brisbane to the Sunshine Coast – but not a cent from Morrison, or Labor, for the restoration of the Casino to Murwillumbah (C-M) train line. They ignore thousands of locals who, for almost twenty years, keep turning out to meetings, rallies, and signing petitions calling for a sustainable, traffic busting and carbon reducing train service to provide public transport for locals and millions of tourists. If just twenty-two kilometres of line is built, local towns, and the region, will be connected to the Queensland rail system and the Gold Coast airport.
The National Party has treated locals with contempt and lied about the cost of returning train services to the C-M line.
In one of the fastest growing regions in the country with over six million tourists, Morrison and the National Party can spend millions of taxpayer funds on the criminal destruction of the line, worth billions, to replace it with an expensive bike track for a few fit cyclists. This bike track is costing as much as repairs to the train line in Byron for a train. This is an outrage when there’s plenty of room along the rail corridor for trains and bike track.
Locals despair that the Labor Party is happy to support this destruction and wicked waste of taxpayers’ money, while claiming they will stop the rorts and are serious about reducing carbon emissions. Should Labor be elected, the waste of taxpayers’ money destroying this train line should be one of the first things to be referred to their Federal Integrity Commission.
Some say ‘green’ electric vehicles will provide transport. Turns out the critical minerals needed to build these ‘green’ vehicles is likely to start another mining boom, including mining pristine wilderness people have fought to protect. How green is that?
Much greener to use the train line we already have, which stayed high and dry in the flood. No need for more mines and environmental destruction.
If you care about this beautiful region we are fortunate to live in, our children’s futures and the survival of the planet, be careful what you vote for on the 21 May.
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
