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Oliver Probert Editor - Rail Express

DURING A SENATE ESTIMATES hearing in October, Labor senator Murray Watt questioned a $190,000 contract to develop a social licence strategy for Inland Rail.

The target of his questioning was Dr Garth Taylor from the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Cities and Regional Development’s Inland Rail division. During the session, Watt suggested the tender itself was evidence “the Inland Rail project has a social licence problem”. He pounced on Taylor’s use of the word “empathy,” when describing what might be involved in developing a social licence. “So we need to spend $190,000 to give the government empathy in dealing with landowners?” the senator asked. Then later followed up with: “Is it the department’s view, four months after this contract has been completed, that the Inland Rail project still has a social licence problem?”

The explanation the “development of a social licence” is simply a more contemporary version of a community engagement strategy – as Taylor suggested – was ignored by Labor. The following day, shadow infrastructure minister Catherine King asked during Question Time why the government is “spending taxpayer money on funded empathy while drought-stricken farm families are being thrown off the Farm Household Allowance”. Deputy prime minister Michael McCormack replied to King, saying it was “important to have empathy for rural communities”. “When it comes to government adver tising, we can get out there and inform people who are going to be impacted by the Inland Rail about their choices, a bout their options,” he said.

Richard Wankmuller, Inland Rail’s CEO, has made the development of a proper social licence for the project a key goal for his team since his appointment in April last year. Speaking at the Inland Rail conference in Toowoomba this past August, he explained the need for such a development. He conceded there had been missteps in the earlier stages of Inland Rail’s development, which helped the team realise the need for a more rigorous social licence strategy in the first place.

But Labor’s framing of the issue as a bid for “funded empathy” is misleading. The assertion that empathy is something the government should just ‘have’ is false. Empathy is the ability to understand and share the feelings of another person or group of people. Where projects like Inland Rail go wrong is when a department or delivery authority assumes it can have empathy without doing the proper groundwork, something Labor is essentially suggesting the Inland Rail team should have been able to do.

Separately, there is to be a government inquiry into the development of Inland Rail. While the government, the rail sector, and the myriad contractors who are looking to take part in the project are no doubt hoping for minimal disruption, there will likely be important lessons learned during that process around route selection and funding methods. But the suggestion money spent to better understand the impact of the project on rural communities is wasted, is a flawed one.

As the rail sector continues to properly grow its share of government spending at the state and federal levels, public buy-in for major rail projects will be more important than ever. Social licence is a critical component of that buy-in. Money will have to be spent to achieve that. But, provided delivery teams properly engage during that process, it will be money well spent.

We’ll be hearing about many major projects and initiatives at AusRAIL PLUS 2019 in Sydney. The three-day conference and exhibition is an essential part of the rail calendar, with new technologies on show, new connections to be made, and empathy to be developed. Rail Express is proud to again take part in this year’s event. The support of the Australasian Railway Association and the other associations taking part in the event is valued by the team, and we look forward to meeting with many representatives from the sector during the event. Please don’t hesitate to come and visit us at Stand 435. Social licence spending a step in the right direction