Josh Wilson (Fremantle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

When I was a kid we marvelled at the stunts of Evel Knievel, but I can tell you that Evel Knievel had nothing on the member for Tangney, who continues to promote a stunt that is bigger and emptier than the Grand Canyon. He continues to say that there is $1.2 billion in the budget for the Perth Freight Link, when he knows there is not one single dollar. It is nothing but a cynical accounting trick. It is fake money for a fake project. Evel Knievel, to his credit, had more than a few tricks. The member for Tangney, sadly, is stuck at one. He first played this tune in 2016, he kept it up all through last year and here we are in 2018 and he is tuning up the old violin for another go. You would think that voters and constituents in Tangney would deserve a bit more than that. Certainly WA deserves more than cynical game-playing, because the passenger and freight transport issues in the south metro region are very real.

The Perth Freight Link, a private toll road that wouldn't reach the port, was never going to solve those issues. There are studies which show that there would be the same number of trucks on the Leach Highway within a decade. That's why Labor clawed back the $1.6 billion from that pointless money pit and we'll now see the upgrade of High Street, the creation of the North Lake Road bridge and the Cockburn-Thornlie rail link, among other projects that reduce congestion and improve safety. That's why Labor is putting more freight on rail and looking at future capacity in the outer harbour—real projects and real solutions with real funding. I invite the member for Tangney to join me in the real world one of these days.