Declaration reviews

The Treasurer’s decisions in relation to the Aurizon Network service, the Queensland Rail service and the DBCT service were published in the Queensland Government Gazette (Extraordinary Queensland Government Gazette no. 31 for 1 June 2020, vol. 384, pp. 203–306).

We received a broad range of submissions throughout the declaration review process on whether the Aurizon Network, Queensland Rail and DBCT services should be declared, not declared, or declared in part, once the existing declarations expire.

We sought further submissions on one further aspect of the DBCT service, as part of forming our view on whether or not the DBCT service satisfies s. 76(2)(a) of the QCA Act (criterion (a)) by 28 October 2019. We received 4 submissions. These submissions are available below under ‘Further submissions on the DBCT service’.

We had to provide our final recommendation to the Minister between 8 September 2019 and 8 March 2020 (under the QCA Act (s. 87A).

Late information from the DBCT User Group

We received late information from the DBCT User Group on 20 August 2019 in respect of our declaration reviews.

In respect of the DBCT User Group’s late information, we determined that it is reasonable  in all the circumstances to make our final recommendation on the DBCT service taking into account the DBCT User Group’s late information. This information is available below under ‘Further submissions on draft recommendations’.

In making our decision, we took into account the factors in section 168B(4) of the QCA Act.

Late information from DBCT Management and Queensland Rail

We received late information from DBCT Management on 30 July 2019, and Queensland Rail on 7 August 2019 in respect of our declaration reviews.

In respect of DBCT Management’s late information, we determined that it is reasonable in all the circumstances to make our final recommendation on the DBCT service taking into account DBCT Management’s late information. This information is available below under ‘Further submissions on draft recommendations’.

In respect of Queensland Rail’s late information, we determined that it is reasonable in all the circumstances to make our final recommendation on the Queensland Rail service without taking into account Queensland Rail’s late information.  Accordingly, this information is not published on our website.

We arrived at the conclusion on both matters taking into account the factors in section 168B(4) of the QCA Act.

Late information from Aurizon Network and the QRC

In June 2019, Aurizon Network and the QRC provided supplementary submissions on the declaration review of Aurizon Network’s service. These are available below under ‘Further submissions on draft recommendations’.

Late information from Watco

On 8 May 2019, Watco made a late submission  in relation to the Queensland Rail declaration review, which the QCA Board has accepted. On 27 May 2019, Watco submitted an amendment to its submission. These documents are available below under ‘Further submissions on draft recommendations’.

The Watco submission says that the services on the Queensland Rail South Western, Western and Central Western systems should be declared, and provides new information regarding these services which was not available to us at the time of our draft recommendation. We considered in its draft recommendation that these services should not be declared.

We invited further submissions from stakeholders in relation to the services provided on the South Western, Western and Central Western systems by 11 June 2019. We received three submissions. These submissions are available below under ‘Further submissions on draft recommendations’.

We held stakeholder forums in relation to the declaration reviews of the DBCT service and the Aurizon Network service on 20 March 2019, and in relation to the Queensland Rail service on 9 April 2019. We subsequently held a stakeholder forum in relation to the DBCT service on 24 July 2019.

Material circulated by stakeholders at the forums is available below under ‘Stakeholder forum material’. Please note that DBCT Management circulated a ‘tender bundle’ during the DBCT forum. It has advised that this material was excerpts from the submissions and contained no new material. As such, this has not been uploaded.

On 18 December 2018, we released our draft recommendations in relation to the Aurizon Network service, the Queensland Rail service and the DBCT service. These recommendations are available below under ‘Draft recommendations’.

The draft recommendations are in four parts:

• Introduction, QCA’s approach to the access criteria and references
• Part A: Draft recommendation—the Aurizon Network service
• Part B: Draft recommendation—the Queensland Rail service
• Part C: Draft recommendation—the DBCT service.

Initial submissions on our draft recommendations were due by 11 March 2019. We received eleven initial submissions, which are available below under ‘Initial submissions on draft recommendations’. Following the initial submissions period, stakeholders were given approximately seven weeks to provide comments on initial submissions received (a cross-submissions process).

Cross-submissions on our draft recommendations were due by 26 April 2019. We received eleven cross-submissions. These submissions are available below under ‘Cross-submissions on draft recommendations’.

On 29 May 2019, the DBCT User Group provided a revised version of its 26 April 2019 cross-submission, which removed the redactions from the scheduled legal advices. This revised submission is also available below under ‘Cross-submissions on draft recommendations’.

The QCA Act (s. 87A) requires us to provide our final recommendation to the Minister between 8 September 2019 and 8 March 2020.

On 4 April 2018, we commenced our review and issued notices of review and investigation to Aurizon Network, Queensland Rail, DBCT Management and DBCT Holdings. At the same time, QCA staff also released an issues paper to assist stakeholders in making submissions. These documents are available below under ‘Papers’.

Following the initial submissions period, stakeholders were given six weeks to provide comments on initial submissions received (a cross-submissions process). Cross-submissions were due by 16 July 2018 (with submissions in relation to Queensland Rail’s proposed access framework given an extension to 30 July 2018). Eleven public cross-submissions were received in this process.

On 29 June 2018, DBCT Management made a late submission to us, providing additional material in connection with its proposed access framework. As the date for providing initial submissions (30 May 2018) had passed, we advised that we would not be taking this submission into account in making our draft recommendation in respect of the DBCT service. On 7 November 2018, we received further correspondence from DBCT Management. Due to the time at which this information was provided, we were unable to take it into account in making our draft recommendation in respect of the DBCT service. We took these submissions into account in preparing our final recommendation.

All submissions referred to above are available below under ‘Submissions received before draft recommendations’.