Rick Wilson (O'Connor, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

The $4.9 billion Roads of Strategic Importance initiative is improving connections for mining and agricultural regions to ports, airports and other hubs right across Australia. That's fantastic for my entirely regional electorate of O'Connor, whose mining and agricultural areas are directly benefiting from $224 million of that funding. In O'Connor, ROSI will improve essential freight roads in the productive Goldfields and Wheatbelt regions of Western Australia. Under ROSI, three key projects are being funded in my electorate. Firstly, there's the $52 million Coolgardie to Esperance Highway upgrade between Widgiemooltha and Kambalda. ROSI is contributing $41.6 million to this important freight route in the shire of Coolgardie. The project started in February and is due for completion in mid-2022. The second project is a $40.5 million upgrade to the Great Eastern Highway will greatly improve freight transport between the Goldfields and the Port of Fremantle. That project will start very soon. It will include significant works in the shires of Westonia and Yilgarn.

Following the recent Western Australia electoral redistribution, these two shires will come into O'Connor from the adjacent electorate of Durack, so ably represented by my good friend Melissa Price. Construction on this Great Eastern Highway upgrade is expected to be completed in early 2023, and the $32.4 million of this project cost will come from ROSI. With Western Australia accounting for almost 70 per cent of the nation's gold production, both of these projects are important for the nation's economic development. But it is the third and largest project funded in my electorate under ROSI that I wish to focus on today.

The $187.5 million Wheatbelt secondary freight network is a once-in-a-generation fillip for a region that has 4,200 mostly family-run farms. Western Australia regularly produces one-third of Australia's wheat and more than 40 per cent of its wheat exports. This year we are on target for a record 20.5 million tonnes. That's two million tons more than we ever produced previously, or an increase of about 10 per cent on the previous record. It is no surprise of course that that production comes out of the Wheatbelt. The region also produces much of Western Australia's 21 per cent contribution to the national wool clip. Almost all of the clip is transported interstate or is exported. You can see then why efficient freight to port and ROSI's $150 million contribution to the project is a huge deal for the region.

I am pleased to report that 42 local governments are collaborating on the 4,400 kilometre Wheatbelt secondary freight network. The project technical director, Garrick Yandle, CEO of the shire of Kulin, tells me that the 42 LGAs have agreed on seven priority routes to progress first up. Along those routes, 10 road projects have commenced, with two already complete. This is in the first year of the project's operation.

I am incredibly enthused about this project because, under the redistribution, my electorate—if I'm fortunate enough to be re-elected—will pick up an additional 16 of these Wheatbelt shires, and that's in addition to the 14 Wheatbelt shires that are already in O'Connor. In the Wheatbelt areas new to my electorate, the $2.2 million Merredin-Narembeen Road upgrade is one of those two projects already completed. Also in new areas of O'Connor will be the $1.3 million Kondinin to Quairading upgrade, which is nearing completion; the $1.4 million improvement to the Goomalling-Meckering Road, which is three-quarters complete; and the $1.6 million upgrade to the Merredin-Narembeen which is well underway. These projects aim to improve access from Wheatbelt ports to the ports of Albany, Kwinana, Fremantle, Geraldton and Bunbury. Elsewhere, in existing areas of O'Connor, shires have priority-one projects, including Corrigin, Cuballing, Dumbleyung, Kondinin, Kulin and Wickepin.

In the shires yet to come across to my electorate, Kondinin, Merredin, Narembeen and Quairading will all directly benefit. That is just from the first $18 million tranche of projects in the overall $187 million Wheatbelt secondary freight network. In shires that will receive funding, Garrick Yandle tells me, the average project cost is between $1.5 million and $2 million, which is three to four times the magnitude of projects that Wheatbelt LGAs would typically deliver. Mr Yandle says the secondary freight network is one of the biggest infrastructure projects the region has ever seen. The roads are essential for supporting key freight supply chains. They also support tourism in the region. I congratulate all 42 participating Wheatbelt shires for their leadership and collaboration in delivering this game-changing project. I commend the Morrison government for its outstanding strategic commitment to this nation-building ROSI initiative.

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