Ben Morton (Tangney, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to speak about the Murdoch Drive Connection. This $100 million project comprises the extension of Murdoch Drive, south from Farrington Road, to provide connections to the Roe Highway and the Kwinana Freeway. It's a good project that has been planned in many forms over the last 10 years. It will provide better access to Fiona Stanley Hospital and help the Murdoch activity centre meet its economic potential as a major employment and research centre. The federal government is funding the construction of the Murdoch Drive Connection to the Roe Highway and the Kwinana Freeway, but the state government is responsible for design and construction. The state government has let us down in the design phase, unilaterally changing their original 2017 plans which were expected to be the final design by many residents. They were available for public consultation through local information sessions. Instead, the WA state government have changed the plans, still agreeing to build the Murdoch Drive Connection but with locals denied full access to it and the full benefits of it. The state Labor government have made these changes without consulting the wider community and the people that will be affected most.

Residents will be forced into longer travel times and more congestion. The 2017 concept plans would have provided direct access from Bibra Drive and Farrington Road to the Roe Highway and the Kwinana Freeway using the Murdoch Drive Connection. But, disappointingly, the state Minister for Transport, Rita Saffioti, has been influenced by a noisy minority and has decided to remove that direct access from Bibra Drive and Farrington Road to the Roe Highway and the Kwinana Freeway using the new Murdoch Drive Connection. This will mean that residents will be denied that full access to the new road and they'll have to continue to use the congested South Street, Berrigan Drive, Farrington Road and Karel Avenue to access the Kwinana Freeway or the Roe Highway, making their travel times longer.

The 2017 concept designs would have put an end to many people living in the suburbs west of the Kwinana Freeway from having to drive through Leeming to access the Roe Highway. This was great news for the residents of Leeming and would have meant that Leeming local roads would be there for use only by locals. It would have made the Leeming community safer, with less traffic, and without a doubt it would have improved the value of homes in the area. When you compare the two designs—the 2017 design with the final design approved by the minister—Main Roads WA's own traffic modelling shows an extra 4,000 cars on Karel Avenue from Leeming each and every day and extra cars on South Street and Berrigan Drive.

Labor's opposition to safer roads in my community is disgraceful. I wrote to Minister Saffioti requesting a short period of public consultation on the final 2018 plans, but my very reasonable request was refused. This is despite the minister knowing that the consultation could have taken place side by side with the construction that is occurring now. There was nothing stopping that consultation taking place. It wouldn't have affected the construction. In the last week, there have been a number of community information displays by Main Roads WA at a local shopping centre. The displays are not consultations. They are solely there to reinforce the new plans and the effect on our communities. Minister Saffioti and other state Labor members of parliament, such as Peter Tinley and Yaz Mubarakai, have the influence to change this. Minister Saffioti claims they got the balance right, but they have not. Peter Tinley claims that he wanted to ensure the new link didn't overload what is already a tight space, but this plan will only increase congestion on access to our freeways. Further consultation would not have affected construction, yet it has been denied.

As construction is in the early stages, changes still can be made. The state government must give local residents better access to the local Perth road network to reduce congestion and improve road safety. I have launched a campaign aimed at reinstating the original plans. Two petitions launched last week have already gathered just under 3,000 signatures as of today. It's clear the community need to be consulted, and they are behind a plan to change back the plans to what they were consulted on in 2017. Labor in WA should put our communities and our families first, and they must get this vital project right. It is not too late to do the right thing and revert to the 2017 plans that were supported by the community.