The Liberal Party’s “Global Link” project has failed to take off with the freight industry refusing to back it, stating that it will not work and will cost the state jobs. During debate in Parliament last week local Member of Parliament, Mr Tony Piccolo said the proposal was not about building a more efficient and productive freight transport industry but rather designed to save the political skins of at least three future Liberal Members of Parliament. Mr Piccolo said the Liberals, still reeling from the loss of the Federal hills seat of Mayo to the Nick Xenophon Team, are trying to sandbag state electorates with a proposal which will cost the state jobs but hopefully claw back a few votes for the their party. ‘The fact the Liberals did not consult with the industry prior to announcing their ‘white elephant’ policy speaks volumes!” Mr Piccolo said. Mr Piccolo quoted Evan Knapp, the South Australian Freight Council Executive Officer who said the Liberal's Globe Link plan seriously concerns the SA Freight Council. “The plan includes a 24 ‑ hour freight-only airport at Monarto, near Murray Bridge, and a combined road/rail bypass to the north of Adelaide. But it won’t work.,” Mr Knapp said. “Airports are almost never sustainable purely on freight. The majority of any exports goes in the belly of passenger aircraft, and it requires a combination of the two to make such services viable.” “There's a second problem with a rail bypass—it's not in our interest to be bypassed.” “If Melbourne-Perth trains cease to go through Adelaide, they won't stop to pick up our freight.” “Relatively speaking, we have only a small number of containers to be picked up and dropped off—this volume will not support the number of services we currently receive in the presence of a bypass option,” he said. Mr Knapp warns that people in larger countries, cities or states may be blasé about spending billions of dollars, but South Australia does not have that kind of money to splash around—every infrastructure dollar is valuable. Mr Piccolo stated that not only have the Liberal Party not bothered to consider the economics, the logistics, the projects already underway, and the existing evidence base, they did not even bother consulting with industry— they did not consult with interested local councils such as the Coorong council. The Coorong Council have written to the Premier about the Globe Link proposal, requesting that the government consider other opportunities as an alternative to the short-sighted Liberal policy that is being pushed. In parliament Mr Piccolo asked, “So why would we spend billions of dollars to cut ourselves off from additional rail services?” “The question remains, and this is the key question in this whole Globe Link debate: why have South Australian taxpayers been asked to fund a project to protect the interests of the future members of Heysen, Davenport and Waite?” Mr Piccolo said. “That is what this project is about: it is sandbagging three electorates from the X factor. It is as simple as that.” “South Australian taxpayers are being asked to fund the election of three Liberal members, and that is just appalling,” he said.