Melissa Parke (Fremantle, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Health) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There is a story unfolding in my electorate that would be a comedy if it were not potentially so horrific in its outcomes. The Western Australian government, in thrall to the monomaniacal road-building fetish of the Abbott government, is ploughing ahead with its intention to build the state's most expensive road—the state's first toll road—a truck freeway, through fragile wetlands, Indigenous heritage and local residential communities, with no regard for proper planning, cost-benefit ratio analysis or long-term freight solutions.

The WA Minister for Transport, Mr Nalder, who is notionally in charge of the project, appears to have no idea about the processes involved. Yesterday morning he told a group of concerned residents that all the environmental approvals had been given. By the time he returned to parliament he was forced to admit that this was not the case.

Smashing a six-lane freeway through the middle of the Beeliar wetlands will cause environmental damage on a scale that was previously judged unacceptable by WA's Environmental Protection Authority in 2003, and I expect the EPBC assessment will confirm that judgement. I do hope someone in Minister Hunt's office makes a special effort to call Mr Nalder.

In May it emerged that the WA Minister for Aboriginal Affairs had given consent for the road, notwithstanding the unanimous rejection of its impact on registered Aboriginal heritage sites by the traditional owners through the South West Aboriginal Land and Sea Council. Bizarrely, the media statement from Main Roads Western Australia thanked the traditional owners for their support.

Roe 8, as part of the Perth Freight Link, is a disaster—a massive waste of time and money, and a mammoth dereliction of proper process and responsible government. (Time expired)