Alannah Mactiernan (Perth, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you. Well, now I am going to tell you. You do not know much about Western Australia, obviously. Western Australia was not terribly excited about the idea of coming into the federal arena, but there was a visionary, John Forrest, who was very keen and who could see a great future. He did understand that what we needed was real infrastructure that linked Western Australia with the east coast. He, as a condition of supporting Federation, required that the parties agree that the transcontinental railway would be built. We had already built a railway line from Freemantle to Kalgoorlie to service our goldmining areas in the 1890s, but we had no link to the eastern states. That was a commitment that everyone agreed to but, once we came into the Federation, it was a bit of a battle getting them to focus on Western Australia's needs. We Western Australians have to keep fighting these battles. Indeed, it was not until 1911, under Andrew Fisher's Labor government, that a decision was made and funding allocated to get that rail line built. But because Western Australia had already built its part of the line to Kalgoorlie on narrow gauge—

An honourable member interjecting—

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