Madeleine King (Brand, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

The member over there would know Fremantle well. It is only three kilometres of road, yet there is the Swan River to cross and there is a major artery of the Stirling Highway. These are significant barriers in those short three kilometres, but nobody is looking to address that.

In fact, I am finding it difficult to talk about the Perth Freight Link anymore. The whole project is just too dumb. It is $1.2 billion of funding for a flawed project made available to prop up a floundering state Liberal government. It is being made available only weeks out from the WA state election. It is not funding to secure the infrastructure needs of Western Australia; it is funding for a deal cobbled together by the former Prime Minister Abbott and WA Premier Colin Barnett.

We have all seen in recent days the deals that Premier Barnett manages to negotiate. In fact, his most recent deal with One Nation, in his own words, is, 'Basically, a mathematical exercise to maximise the Liberal Party vote.' As a Western Australian I can tell you this is not a reassuring sentiment to hear from the Premier of my state. And this federal government still has the nerve to tell the people of WA, as they face a state election, that the $1.2 billion promised in federal infrastructure funding is only available for this flawed project. So the will of the WA electorate will count for nothing when it comes to infrastructure funding. Minister Cormann has said as much—he will not make the funding available for anything other than the ridiculous Perth Freight Link.

This government, and Premier Barnett's Liberal government, has chosen not to invest in the outer harbour at Kwinana. They will not invest in the local, state and national economies. They will not invest in the creation of an estimated 25,000 new direct jobs. They will not invest in innovation through the application of modern technology to port operations. This government will not invest in a much needed public transport rail network across Perth. This government will not invest in linking the Mandurah Line, which takes the people of Brand either north to the city or south to Mandurah, to the Thornlie Line, which opens up many employment opportunities for people in my electorate. And this government, and Colin Barnett's government, will not invest in building a new train station at Karnup, again another much needed infrastructure project to enable people living in the fast-growing suburbs of the southern end of Brand to get to work without facing gridlock on the congested freeway.

If he chose to visit Perth, the Prime Minister might see how badly communications infrastructure is needed. This government is failing to invest in the NBN and all sorts of communications infrastructure. They might try to lift thousands of residents in Baldivis out of the nightmare of the communications black hole they find themselves in.

I am pleased to compare that record with that of Labor when we have been in government. In my electorate of Brand—this is but a small list, and I cannot repeat everything the member for Grayndler has said, but we know how much Labor have invested in WA—there has been more than $2.1 million to fix dangerous local roads; $5.4 million for the construction of a bridge over Mandurah Road; $6 million towards the Baldivis Library and Community Centre; $4 million for the Medina Town Centre Project; $3.3 million to construct the Community Resource and Knowledge Centre at Kwinana; $65 million for the Mandurah Entrance Road; and $160 million for the Perth-Bunbury Highway—fantastic projects that have all been delivered and which people of my electorate all enjoy.

We know that the Libs and Nats have never really had their heart in WA; it is just a honeypot from which to extract political donations. You rarely see a senior Liberal in Brand. I am not sure I have seen a Liberal minister in the suburbs of Rockingham or Kwinana, unless they are blowing hundreds of thousands of dollars trying to unseat that great Western Australia, the Hon. Gary Gray.

I am proud of Labor's record in WA and in Brand. Labor ministers, Labor Prime Ministers and the Labor shadow minister for infrastructure have often visited Brand. Former Prime Minister Gillard would visit Rockingham, Brand, Kwinana and Calista twice every year. But you will not see Prime Minister Turnbull in Western Australia, and you certainly will not see him in Rockingham. As the local daily observed, 'Where is Malcolm?' Sucked into a vacuum of irrelevance, is what I would suggest.

When in government, Labor invested in roads, invested in rail and invested in public transport. In government, Labor invested in the infrastructure necessary for the future of this country. And, now, WA Labor is committed to invest in the future of Western Australia. In WA, only Labor and Mark McGowan are committed to the much-needed METRONET commuter rail plan and the future of a Kwinana outer harbour.

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