Richard Court

This follows yesterday's announcement from the state government to introduce legislation to establish a legal framework to enable the potential to return the lines to public control.

The freight rail network was sold off by the Richard Court government in 2000 under a 49-year lease and is currently being operated by ARC Infrastructure.

Tony, what did you make of yesterday's announcement?

Belinda, first of all, I don't think that this will happen for reasons we can discuss in a few moments.

Well, the state government has taken another step towards its proposal to buy back the state's freight rail network, announcing the introduction of legislation to establish a legal framework to enable the potential to return it to public control.

The freight rail network was sold off by the Richard Court government in 2000 under a 49-year lease and is currently being operated by ARC Infrastructure.

Many of the lines, known as Tier 3 lines, extend through the southern half of the state and have been left dormant since 2014, forcing more trucks on the road to transport goods like grain.

Transport Minister Rita Safioti has just finished a media briefing and joins us now.

We're just telling you it's his account and it's an extraordinary one.

And another interesting part of the story, the money side of things here, the Premier of Western Australia, Richard Court, called what he had done reckless.

And he hoped that Boguki and his family would pay a significant part of the search cost.

A state member of parliament, Larry Graham, went further and said that Boguki should cover the entirety of the expense because he'd put the searchers themselves at risk.