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The controversial rail corporation controls billions of dollars worth of the state’s trains and other rail assets.Credit:Wolter Peeters

The rail corporation has been the subject of intense criticism and a parliamentary inquiry since aHerald investigation last year revealed it had been set up toartificially inflate the NSW budget.

Labor leader Chris Minns said TAHE had cost taxpayers $25 billion in write-downs and bail-outs,all the while putting at risk rail safety.

“TAHE has always been about the NSW Liberals pursuing their agenda for transport of privatisation and higher fares as well as perpetuating a huge budget con,” he said.

The government was forced to write down the value of TAHE by $20 billion and inject billions of dollars into the rail corporation late last year. Former NSW auditor-general Tony Harris has described the corporation as a “vehicle of deception”.

If elected,Labor promises to take advice from experts,including those on rail safety,about a suitable timeframe to dismantle TAHE and return the rail assets to Transport for NSW and its agencies. It would be similar to the previous model where rail operators such as Sydney Trains effectively owned the assets they operated.

Last week the Herald revealed TAHE’sambitious plans to sell or redevelop land across Sydney’s rail network and morph into a big property developer to deliver more than $40 billion in government windfalls.

Shadow treasurer Daniel Mookhey said the public had had enough spin and accounting cons. “TAHE has to go. The public wants an end to the accounting trickery,lavish consultant spending and now the flogging off of public assets,” he said.

Mookhey said dismantling TAHE would be complicated but “rail safety has to come first”.

NSW shadow treasurer Daniel Mookhey.Credit:Michael Quelch

A spokeswoman for Treasurer Matt Kean said the opposition failed to understand that TAHE was an asset holding company that taxpayers own.

“The purpose of TAHE is to ensure transport assets are fully utilised and deliver maximum benefits for the people of NSW,” she said.

In April,a parliamentary committeerecommended the government unwind the rail corporation due to ongoing hits to the state budget and its inability to credibly make a commercial return.

At the time,Kean described the committee’s report as a “political document” concocted by Labor,the Greens and the Shooters,and said its claims about safety risks were misleading and incorrect.

Internal documents have shown that TAHE plans to spend $34.5 million on consultants over four years. The government has previously come under fire for spending millions of dollars onconsultants to advise on the state-owned corporation.

Late last year,the NSW Auditor-General delayed signing off on the state government’s financial accounts by months due to major concerns about TAHE and,in February,the watchdog accused Treasury of obstructing its investigation into the rail corporation.

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