While local politicians use taxpayers’ money for full-page ads in local papers claiming credit for providing funds for flood recovery, or infrastructure and services, as well as Christmas messages, curiously not one is claiming credit for the $14.4m of state and federal government money spent destroying the Casino to Murwillumbah (C–M) train line, worth billions, from Murwillumbah to Crabbes Creek to replace it with a bike track for a few fit cyclists.
If destroying this valuable train line for a bike track is such a wonderful idea and has community support, why wouldn’t local politicians not want to claim credit for it?
Obviously local politicians are well aware of the community’s opposition and massive long-running David and Goliath battle to stop the waste of taxpayers’ money destroying this rail line, when there’s a desperate need for sustainable public transport for this fast-growing region and millions of tourists.
In the middle of a climate catastrophe when we need to work hard and fast to reduce our emissions, all we get from our politicians is waste of taxpayers’ money and mean, tricky politics. The Liberal/National Parties (LNP) must provide the train service they promised for so many years. As they said: ‘It (a commuter train service on the C–M line) would cost about $1.6m to run, which came in under the $2.8m of the current bus service. The next step would be to build a rail link between Murwillumbah and the Gold Coast.’ They also said the social, environmental, and flow-on economic benefits of this train service were enormous, if difficult to measure.
Locals would also like to know what the Labor Party and Green politicians are doing to save this train line. Why aren’t they making a noise and holding the LNP to account and demanding they honour their longstanding promise ‘to get the trains running’?
Voters are over this mean, tricky style of politics where promises are made to gain votes then ditched on some pretext or dodgy study. As we saw at the recent federal election, where the vote for Labor and the LNP went through the floor as disenchanted voters preferred decent independent candidates.
If we’re going to survive increasing numbers and severity of climate disasters, this vote will have to be repeated at the state election in March.
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. 
