Father of Inland Rail says 'this thing is on and unstoppable' | Insiders on Background

David Speers· Host0:00

[upbeat music] ABC Listen, podcasts, radio, news, music and more. Tammy Shipley believed someone was out to hurt her.

Everald Compton· Guest0:11

I thought someone was after me, and I wanted to just be safe.

David Speers· Host0:13

She's put under twenty-four-hour surveillance.

Everald Compton· Guest0:15

I tried to get in contact multiple times. I just need to make a phone call. Nobody knows where I am.

David Speers· Host0:21

And then something strange happens. She just drank and drank and had something like twenty liters of pure water. Ambulance emergency.

Everald Compton· Guest0:28

I've got a woman unconscious.

David Speers· Host0:30

Tammy's story. Search Background Briefing on ABC Listen or wherever you get your podcasts. [upbeat music] Budget announcements, it turns out, aren't always the final word. The pressure is on the government over its contentious tax changes, and we're all waiting to see how much ground the government might give. And on another front, there also appears to be some movement this week. I'm talking about the long-debated Inland Rail project. Now, Inland Rail was originally set to connect Melbourne all the way to Brisbane. But just ahead of the budget, the government announced the project would only run as far north as Parkes in central New South Wales. The line was being cut short, the government said, due to an enormous cost blowout. It was going to cost more than forty-five billion dollars to complete. In truth, there were always doubts about how to connect this thing through to Brisbane and what it might cost. Well, for some years, a private consortium had been working on a proposal to instead build an extension of Inland Rail from Goondiwindi, which is on the New South Wales-Queensland border, up to Gladstone