Dennis Jensen (Tangney, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

In the electorate of Tangney there is only one issue that everyone is talking about. In fact, this one issue is something that people of Tangney have been talking about and asking for for over a decade—I refer to Roe Highway extension stage 8. Thankfully, the people of Tangney no longer have to wait thanks to this all-action Liberal government. Roe Highway stage 8 will be completed to overturn the planning bastardry of previous Labor governments.

Roe Highway stage 8 has been a defining difference between the Liberal and Labor parties for more than a decade. Labor's decision to axe the Fremantle Eastern Bypass, the southern extension of the Stirling Highway through White Gum Valley, was one of the worst acts of planning bastardry in WA, followed closely by the spaghetti junction, where Roe 7 and the Kwinana Freeway now meet. Labor also chose to site the new Fiona Stanley Hospital in Murdoch, create traffic congestion that is costing millions of dollars to manage.

I note here that the state Labor minister responsible for the bastardry was none other than the current member for Perth. I would like to inform the member that every cost-benefit analysis, every environmental impact statement and business case is in favour of Roe 8. Building that road will massively reduce particulate emissions in the area. The serious point relates to the ease of access to the hospital for critically ill patients and it is criminal to think that Labor may have issued death sentences on many in my electorate—a death sentence because Labor fobbed to the will of a few Communist left goonies. Taking heavy duty commercial traffic off Leach Highway makes sense for families and communities in my electorate but also for business. The coalition is the only party with a plan to build not just a road but a whole strategy that looks to the Fremantle port and the airport. The Liberals have a holistic strategy for WA. It is a strategy that brings jobs and growth to WA and to my electorate of Tangney. The member for Perth should have known better and today should apologise to the state of WA for her criminal decisions. Speaking on the Railway Agreement (Western Australia) Amendment Bill 2014, on Wednesday, 28 May, the member for Perth said:

… this road was comprehensively demonstrated not to represent value for money and, indeed, not to be conducive to good planning.

I challenge the member for Perth to say that to any person in my electorate of Tangney.

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