Melissa Parke (Fremantle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

One of the environmental treasures of the Fremantle electorate is a string of lakes and remnant bushland that is called the Beeliar Regional Park. It is one of the last remaining wetland areas in metropolitan Perth and as such it is both a much loved community resource and also a critical habitat for native and endangered fauna and flora. Some 120 species of bird populate the area, 24 of which are uncommon. This includes two endangered bird species, the peregrine falcon and carnaby’s black cockatoo; an important national migratory bird, the rainbow bee-eater; and rare, timid birds like the buff-banded rail and the spotless crake.

The range of migratory birds that frequent these wetlands encompasses species protected by various international agreements consistent with the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals, and I am aware that the North Lake Residents Association has raised this matter with the Joint Standing Committee on Treaties. In addition to the birdlife that depends on this park, there are many native animals that rely on it as both a habitat and breeding ground, including the endangered lined skink.

The wetlands also feature 223 local plant species, four of which are listed in Western Australia as being endangered. When you consider the vitality of the wetland ecosystem, it is no surprise that it is a place of very substantial importance to the traditional owners of the land, the Nyoongar people, who have lived in contact with this area for thousands of years. I have met with Nyoongar elder Patrick Hume and assisted him in his efforts to seek a protective declaration for the wetlands under the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Heritage Protection Act. North and Bibra Lakes, which are at the northern end of the Beeliar Regional Park, are currently listed on an interim basis as a national heritage place on the Register of the National Estate of the Australian Heritage Commission because of their environmental significance.

Now all of this precious heritage is under threat because the new WA state government is set to build an entirely redundant road straight through the middle of the wetlands, dividing North and Bibra Lakes. This is despite the fact that it will effectively be a road to nowhere and despite the fact that a previous environmental assessment rejected the construction of the road. The WA Environmental Protection Authority assessed the proposal for a freeway extension through the Beeliar Wetlands in 2003 and reached the view that such a road ‘would be extremely difficult to be made environmentally acceptable’ and ‘would lead to the ecological values of the area as a whole being diminished in the long term’. It concluded that ‘every effort should be made to avoid this’.

In 2006, the then Labor government of Western Australia completed the intersection of the Roe Highway and the Kwinana Freeway with the construction of Roe stage 7. The plan for a Roe stage 8, in which the Roe Highway would continue west to link with the planned Fremantle Eastern Bypass, had long since been abandoned, not least because the bypass had itself long been abandoned and removed from the Metropolitan Regional Scheme. The Barnett government, elected late last year, has unfortunately decided to resurrect Roe stage 8 even though it accepts that the Fremantle Eastern Bypass is dead.

I am led to believe that Roe stage 8 is opposed by the new Liberal member for Jandakot, Joe Francis, whose constituents are also my constituents. They will suffer the construction and ongoing consequences of this expensive, pointless and destructive road. I look forward to hearing Mr Francis take up the case loudly on their behalf.

There are a number of valiant, tireless community groups in the area who have fought to protect the wetlands and lakes area and to oppose this road for more than a decade. I have mentioned the North Lake Residents Association, whose convenor, Joe Branco, has put his heart and soul into the fight for years. His group and others are now working together under the umbrella of the Beeliar Heritage and Conservation Council, and I encourage interested Australians to view their excellent website: savebeeliarwetlands.com.

When it comes to urban and transport planning in Western Australia, we desperately need to look to the future, not the past. We do not need to build more roads to nowhere and we certainly do not need to destroy those few rare pieces of environmental and Indigenous heritage in the name of yet another six-lane road. We do need to use the roads we have more intelligently and we do need to explore ways to decrease personal road use and road freight. The WA Carpenter-Gallop government achieved a 1,200 per cent increase in the number of containers moving through the Fremantle port by rail between 2002 and 2006. The Rudd federal government is investing $1.3 million in network intelligence infrastructure and freight traveller information to improve the efficiency of freight vehicle movement into the port. This is the future. Roe stage 8 is the past.

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