Matt Keogh (Burt, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

My colleagues have already pointed out today's front page of The West Australian, asking the question that has been on the lips of many Western Australians for months now: 'Where is Malcolm?' It has been 186 days since the Prime Minister deigned to cross the Nullarbor and set foot in Western Australia. As TheWest Australian's Shane Wright so perfectly described it, he 'has become the Prime Minister of eastern Australia'. It is the re-emergence of the Brisbane Line. In fact, the Prime Minister has spent more time in Peru and Micronesia in the last six months than in my home state!

However, a bit deeper into The West Australian today, another story appears that would not come as news to many of my constituents. The RAC's Risky Roads survey has been released, and Western Australians have identified the Denny Avenue level crossing in my electorate as the most dangerous stretch of road in the state. There were 145 crashes at that rail crossing between 2011 and 2015, and the problem has only gotten worse since. Along with my fellow Labor members, I have been telling governments this for years, and so I was proud to secure a commitment from federal Labor during the Canning by-election to fund a solution at Denny Avenue; a commitment that was reaffirmed at the 2016 federal election—as was our commitment to a new Armadale Road bridge. Alas, those commitments were not matched by the Turnbull Liberal government, and they have not been considered worthy of the Barnett Liberals, either. Apparently WA's most dangerous road is not worthy of the attention of the Liberals. But there is good news: Mark McGowan and WA Labor have made a commitment that, if elected, they will remove the Denny Avenue level crossing and replace it with either an underpass or an overpass, as one of the top priorities of METRONET. They will finally see a solution to this dangerous traffic snarl, and they will get it underway in the first term of a WA Labor government.

I am glad that the member for Grayndler led off this matter of public importance debate today, because I distinctly recall standing with the member for Grayndler at Denny Avenue in September 2015, on the Prime Minister's first day on the job, calling on him to invest in new infrastructure that WA desperately needed—and still does. Needless to say, he has not. The great disappointment of the Turnbull government has utterly neglected the people of Western Australia, and nowhere is this more apparent than in his failure to invest in the infrastructure needed in my state. Perhaps this is why the Prime Minister has been avoiding WA. But I have a theory. Just days after the former Prime Minister, the member for Warringah, visited my region of WA during that by-election, he was knocked off by the current Prime Minister—could it be that this calls for neglect? Is the Prime Minister so afraid of his backbench that some superstitious fear of the West has overtaken him? Or is it just that the WA Liberal Party has realised that the Prime Minister is so on the nose that a visit during a state election campaign could do nothing but further hurt their cause? I compare this to the Leader of the Opposition, who has already visited our great state twice this year. The Leader of the Opposition knows that he is welcome in WA. But—after today's front page—we have heard Colin Barnett will invite the Prime Minister to WA, and that he will grace us with his presence this weekend. So I would like to extend an invitation to the Prime Minister: come on down to Denny Avenue in Kelmscott, WA's most dangerous stretch of road, and decide for yourself. And while you are in the neighbourhood, come on down and have a look at the chronic and growing congestion along Armadale Road—or come down to where Labor will extend the Thornlie rail line through Canning Vale to Cockburn Central. I will be able to tell you about the solution as well: the new Armadale Road bridge, which the Mark McGowan Labor government will start construction on in its first term—just as it will build METRONET. One day, the PM can even come, take a ride, and get a selfie on it! Forgive my lack of faith, Mr Deputy Speaker, but I doubt that the Prime Minister will take me up on my offer.

I also doubt that we will see much of the Prime Minister in WA before the state election—because the truth is, the Liberal Party takes WA for granted. The Turnbull-Abbott governments have not committed a single infrastructure dollar to a rail project in WA since forming government. They like to bang on about the Forrestfield line, but let me be very clear: that funding was GST compensation, brought on because the Liberals here have done nothing to fix the woeful and unfair share of GST going to Western Australia. The Liberals' 2016 budget makes it clear—it is right here in Budget Paper No. 3 on page 51: zero dollars for rail in Western Australia; and in fact, in Budget Paper No. 1 on page 538: zero dollars nationally for rail in 2019-20. They have done it for too long. It is an insult to every Western Australian for a Prime Minister of Australia to ignore our state. Whether it is his refusal to visit, or the Liberals' neglect of infrastructure spending, on 11 March Western Australians have a chance to kick out the hopeless, arrogant, out-of-touch Barnett government and to send a strong message to Canberra. (Time expired)

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