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Consultation continues on $100 million Beef Roads Program

The final stakeholder consultation on the multi-million-dollar Northern Australia Beef Roads Program took place in Darwin last week.

The final stakeholder consultation on the multi-million-dollar Northern Australia Beef Roads Program took place in Darwin last week.The final stakeholder consultation on the $100 million Northern Australia Beef Roads Program took place in Darwin earlier this month.

The multi-million dollar commitment from the Australian Government is aimed at improving key roads used for cattle transport in the nation’s north.
Federal Minister for Infrastructure and Transport Darren Chester said in a statement that this last stakeholder forum followed the roundtable discussions held last year.

“Stakeholders from the cattle and transport industries were invited, along with local and state governments, to put forward their road infrastructure priorities during these roundtables,” Mr. Chester said.

“[This] marks the third and final consultation and I look forward to the presentation of findings from the CSIRO’s TRaNSIT modelling of stakeholder priorities, which has analysed the benefits to the movement of cattle of potential projects.

“I am also pleased that experienced and respected cattle industry figures David Crombie and Troy Setter have again agreed to co-chair the roundtable.”

The successful projects under the program are expected to be announced in mid-2016.

“The Government is now seeking formal project submissions from the relevant jurisdictions. Projects will be assessed on their capacity to improve the reliability, productivity and resilience of cattle supply chains in northern Australia, reducing freight costs and better connecting industry to markets,” said Mr. Chester.

In addition to the Northern Australia Beef Roads Program, the Australian Government is investing $600 million towards the Northern Australia Roads Program.

Northern roads will also benefit from the $5 billion Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility, which will provide concessional loans for major infrastructure in the north.

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