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

I rise today to speak about Orrong Road, a main road in my electorate of Swan and a road notorious for delays. As is it stands, Orrong Road is currently the third most delayed road across the city of Perth. The traffic is delayed by 32.3 per cent and road users are travelling at an average speed of 40.6 kilometres per hour, despite it being a 70 kilometres per hour road. In short, Orrong Road is the sixth slowest road in the metropolitan area of Perth. In April this year I sent out a survey to approximately 13,000 people in my electorate of Swan, in the suburbs of Kewdale, Rivervale, Lathlain, Carlisle, Queens Park, East Cannington and Welshpool. I received almost 1,500 surveys back, and I'm sure the member for Ballarat would say that that's a pretty good response. Over 1,150 said that they supported the road being widened, and the rest supported upgrades to intersections. I see the member for Perth has just arrived, which is great timing because I've got him in my speech!

In 2010-11, Main Roads Western Australia wrote a report about the ways various intersections on Orrong Road could be upgraded as well as how these upgrades would be affected by future widening. Until earlier this year when the Orrong Road intersection with Archer Street in Carlisle and the intersection with Alexander Road in Rivervale received a $1.8 million upgrade through the Turnbull government's Black Spot Program, there had been no work done to remedy the traffic issues—lots of promise, but no work. Prior to these upgrades, there had been a combined total of 202 crashes from 1 January 2011 to 31 December 2015 at these two intersections, which are within 200 metres of each other. This was despite the Gillard government promising to upgrade the road when I faced the now member for Perth in an election back in 2010—another broken promise by the Gillard government. Look at the cute, young face—

Lucy Wicks (Robertson, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The member for Swan will not use props.

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

Look what it says here, that they will 'provide 80 per cent of the funding to upgrade major roads in our community like upgrading Orrong Road.' They never did; they never provided the funding for Orrong Road.

The next round of the Black Spot Program, announced at the Orrong Road and Roberts Road intersection, will see $220,000 worth of upgrades. The next intersection I would like to see upgraded—and I'm sure I'll get support from the member for Perth—is the Orrong Road intersection with Oats Street. It's currently causing huge delays and is unsafe not only for my constituents but also for road users across Perth who frequent this stretch of road. Widening will need to be looked at as Orrong Road is the main road to the city from growing parts of my electorate, such as East Cannington, and also areas such as Kewdale and Rivervale which have increasing amounts of in-fill housing.

I look forward to working with the community and Main Roads Western Australia to ensure that the best outcome is achieved at this intersection in my electorate of Swan, and I look forward to support from member for Perth.