This brings me to the never ending and often raised subject of high-speed trains in Australia. Yes, we may have a 'kind of' high-speed train in the 'Queensland Tilt Train' and the Western Australian 'Prospector', but nothing like the trains of Japan and Europe. The New South Wales XPT really is just yesterday’s history 'repackaged'.

So, Indonesia has just announced the purchase of eleven new eight carriage hgh-speed trains designed for 350km per hour service to operate between Jakarta and Bandung commencing within two years. Total cost, $483,165,429.

While Indonesia goes high-speed Australia remains hidden in history, the North Coast Line in New South Wales a prime example. As Associate Professor Philip Laird from Wollongong University cites, the railway between just Maitland and Stroud Road, a distance of only 73 kilometres completes equal to 18 full circles before moving forward one metre. By the way, there is a distance of 683km between Maitland and the Queensland border.

So while our trains go around in circles, replicate history, waste time and resources Indonesia is forging into the high-speed future of 350 Klm's per hour services. So why not Australia, because our foreign aid to Indonesia in the year 2016-17 will be $365.7 million, a very nice down payment on their eleven high-speed trains, but nothing is happening in Australia, except fluffy words. By the way, update and modernise the railways, the immediate result is road congestion and delays reduced considerably.

So Malcolm, let us see the action, the time for words is over, yes, 'Australia first' so let us start building infrastructure using Australian dollars and Australian labor and really put Australia first and foremost.

Mervyn Cunningham, Frederickton