Alannah Mactiernan (Perth, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Last weekend I was out with Labor's fantastic local candidate for Canning, Matt Keogh. We saw the huge boom in housing and population in this area and we heard from punters about the enormous strain that this is placing on transport infrastructure. Residents and local authorities say that there are nine kilometres of gridlock during peak hour as residents in the dormitory suburbs along Armadale Road head for the job-rich destinations north on the Kwinana Freeway and the Mandurah railway line and west to the Kwinana industrial strip. This huge congestion crisis is impacting on the everyday lives of residents and is affecting the productivity of business.

Matt Keogh has successfully led the charge to secure a commitment from federal Labor to help fund the solution. Labor has committed $145 million to the Community Connect South project for the duplication of Armadale Road between Verde Drive and Anstey Road and the construction of the North Lake Road bridge, and that is half the total cost of the project. This is not a pledge just for the by-election but one that we will take into the general election next year.

The Abbott and Barnett Liberal governments have been incapable of making any commitment because they are pouring $2 billion into the most flawed and poorly planned project we have ever seen in Western Australia, the Perth Freight Link.