Steve Irons (Swan, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to provide the House with an update on the Manning Road on-ramp, which has been an important local issue in my electorate of Swan for many years. In fact, it has been a project that has been discussed since the 1980s. When I became the local federal member for Swan in 2007, constituents began to express their frustration with the lack of an on-ramp at Manning Road to take the traffic south on Kwinana Freeway. In 2009, I did a survey and I received over 1,000 responses with almost unanimous support for the project. As a result, I have continued to campaign for the people of Swan for the provision of a southbound access to the freeway on Manning Road.

To provide some background for the House, Manning Road connects Albany Highway to the Kwinana Freeway in the southern part of my electorate. It is not only used by thousands of my constituents but by the broader population of Perth. It is also a key road to Curtin University, which boasts of an enrolment of nearly 40,000 at the Bentley Campus, and is used by many others on their daily commute to the city. However, the real issue is that anybody needing to join the Kwinana Freeway and head south from Manning Road is currently required to navigate a complex stretch of road, do a circle around the freeway which involves heading northwards, merging and then a lane change back across the Canning bridge. You then have to merge with the traffic coming off the freeway to get back onto the freeway. It is the cause of immense frustration, but it is also a very dangerous stretch of road in our great state of Western Australia.

In addition to this, the on-ramp is more urgent than ever to ensure ease of access to the new Fiona Stanley Hospital, with increased demand from patients needing to head south to attend the hospital or the ED. In November last year, I took the Prime Minister to Manning Road, and he said he could see the need for an on-ramp and that heading south is currently quite an elaborate exercise. And then, only a few months on, this government committed to help fund the Manning Road on-ramp. The need for the on-ramp seems blatantly obvious, unfortunately though, Labor has not supported this. When former member for Perth, Alannah MacTiernan, was a WA minister for planning and infrastructure, she rejected the on-ramp project. Similarly, Senator Sue Lines, with a seat in the Senate, certainly does not start her list of priorities with it.

The coalition has listened to the community and committed to this funding during the election. Last week, I met with the Western Australian state minister for transport, Bill Marmion, to discuss the state's share of funding and a potential time line for the project. I look forward to further updating the House and the residents of Swan on this project, and would like to thank all the residents of Swan who have inquired about this project and continue to support it not only through sending their messages of support but also by continuing to vote for the coalition at both the federal and state elections. Thank you.