A minor party is calling on governments to get behind an audacious proposal to build a rail route across Northern Australia to link key resource industries in WA and Queensland.
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The $100 billion Iron Boomerang project proposes to link Queensland's Bowen Basin coal resources with WA's Pilbara region and its store of iron ore by 3300km of rail.
The proposal is not new - it has been around since 2011 but this week its owner Brisbane-based businessman Shane Condon told News Corp Australia the idea was possible if our politicians "find their balls or ovaries".
Now Australian Federation Party Federal Chairman, Glenn O'Rourke is calling on the Federal, Western Australia, Northern Territory, Queensland and South Australia Governments to commit to providing Government Bonds support the project to the tune of USD $240 million equivalent for 10 years.
Mr O'Rourke said governments would directly benefit financially from the project and needed to demonstrate united support and skin in the game to guarantee the best investment security."
"The Iron Boomerang project is one of the most exciting infrastructure projects the nation has known since the Snowy Hydro and Sydney Harbour Bridge projects," he said.
The project's primary objective is to facilitate the production of Australian made slab steel for further processing transfer and/or export, thereby significantly reducing the quantities of seaborne bulk iron ore and coking coal (and empty ship returns) by three times.
The idea is that once the resource-rich parts of the northern states by rail, industry can make the first stage of steel here in Australia.
The rail corridor would use existing lines from Abbot Point near Bowen to the Bowen Basin coalfields and then build a new line via Kynuna and nearby Cannington Mine and Incitec Pivot's Phosphate Hill, then cross into NT through the Barkly Tablelands crossing the Stuart Hwy at Tri Tree, 200km north of Alice Springs then into the deserts of WA before picking up an existing line at Newman and on to Port Hedland.
A video produced by the company say their initial costing of the railway line would be $6 billion.
Mr Condon said that by doubling the value of our two biggest experts, he reckons it would inject $23 billion in taxable growth revenue into the economy and claims to be in "high level talks" with the federal government.
Apart from the Australian Federation Party, Jason Costigan's North Queensland Party is the only other political party to openly support the scheme so far.
The project is not related to the push to build a Mount Isa to Tennant Creek railway which has also been mooted for several years but yet to receive any government support.
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