Andrew Hastie (Canning, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This morning I rise to speak about people who live in the suburb of Lakelands, an Australian catchment of Madora Bay, San Remo, Meadow Springs and Parklands, all of which are located in north Mandurah, which is the heart of my electorate. Lakelands is home to more than 5,000 people, mostly young families. It also has a number of schools including Lakelands Primary School, Lakelands Senior High School and Mandurah Baptist College. There is also a Catholic school that is set to open in 2019 in Madora Bay, and we are just about to celebrate the opening of a new shopping centre.

With the population expected to grow by about 112 per cent over the next 20 years, it is critical we get the planning right and that the infrastructure meets the needs of the population growth. Central to this vision is the Lakelands train station. When the suburb was developed more than a decade ago, residents were sold lots on the promise of a train station. They were told they would have access to public transport at their fingertips, meaning no sitting in traffic at peak hour or having to put up with the hustle and bustle of a congested train station down south, which is Mandurah train station. Getting to work would be as simple as getting on a bus or a bike or even walking to the train station. They were sold this promise by the developers, the City of Mandurah and local politicians. But still, more than a decade later, there is no train station in Lakelands.

Why is a train station important? Every morning, a large number of constituents from Lakelands head to Mandurah station, which is 50 minutes from the Perth CBD. They have to find parking. They have to compete with other commuters for parking. They then have to get on the train for 15 minutes to the north. They have to go south before they can go north. The burden of parking tickets, the burden of running a vehicle in addition to catching a train and the opportunity cost that comes with an extra 15 minutes on your commute, which could be time spent with family or indeed just walking, is lost.

It is not the City of Mandurah's fault. They approved the plans about a decade ago in 2006. Under state Labor in 2008, the then Minister for Planning and Infrastructure, Alannah MacTiernan, said:

We made it very clear in the master plan that future stations would be built and that one of the stations would be Lakelands. We stand by that.

She then went on to say:

I agree absolutely—I can understand that the communities of Lakelands and Madora would like a new railway station. It would be very good for them.

Indeed in the same year, the member for Mandurah, David Templeman, said:

Frankly, Mandurah needs a new train station. My preferred location is the locality of Lakelands …

Now WA Labor wants to put a train station in Karnup, which is 10 minutes to the north and less than half the population of Lakelands, without any of the density of Lakelands and the surrounding areas. So I am calling on WA state Labor to fund the Lakelands train station and to do it now and live up to the promise they made to the people 10 years ago.