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

Today, Infrastructure Australia has issued its 2019 priority list, and I'm glad that two projects on that list are important and relevant to the community I represent, the federal electorate of Fremantle, for reducing congestion and supporting both passenger and freight transport needs.

The first of these is the Armadale Road to North Lake Road Bridge at Cockburn Central in my electorate. It's one of the fastest-growing local government areas in Australia. There has been extraordinary residential growth, catalysed by the visionary move by Labor governments to put in place a hard rail line between Perth and Mandurah. It was supported by the previous Labor government through a number of initiatives, including a GP super clinic and other kinds of community infrastructure, but it is a victim of its own success. The fact that there are so many people there and the facilities are so good, including the Cockburn ARC, which the previous Labor government supported to the tune of $10 million, has meant that there is a congestion issue.

I'm glad to see that the Armadale Road to North Lake Road Bridge remains a priority project according to Infrastructure Australia. I'm more glad that the Western Australian government is committed to delivering the project. We will see the duplication of Armadale Road on the eastern side of the freeway and, on the eastern side of Coburn Central, the building of the new North Lake Road Bridge, which will mean two streams of traffic moving east-west: those going due west on Beeliar Drive and those going north-west on North Lake Road. That project was a commitment of mine when I was first elected in 2016. It is being funded, and that is a great thing.

The second project I want to mention is the new Fremantle Traffic Bridge. It has gone onto the Infrastructure Australia priority list, and it's a very important project, as a cross-river link. Addressing the issue with the existing bridge has both road and rail implications. The bridge was first built in 1939. It is substantially a timber bridge and it is past its use-by date. Infrastructure Australia acknowledged that something needs to be done to address the condition of the bridge, which some time in the next five years will not be fit for purpose. It is past time to see a new bridge. The Gallop-Carpenter WA government had $80 million in the state budget some time ago to address this pressing need. Unfortunately, that funding was removed by the Barnett Liberal government between 2008 and 2017, so the project has not been advanced. Something needs to be done. IA makes it very clear that the bridge will quite possibly cease to be operational in five or so years if something isn't done.

By replacing that bridge, you get multiple benefits. First of all, you get a proper 21st-century traffic bridge at a vital point across the Swan River—or Derbarl Yerrigan as it's known to the Wajuk Noongar people of Walyalup, as Fremantle is now known—but it has an added advantage: if you create a new bridge, in addition to the traffic capacity, you could also introduce a new pair of rail lines. Currently the pair of rail lines are conflicted during the day because the passenger rail use has to be prioritised, and that means that the freight rail use really has a tiny window in which to work. So, by creating a new Fremantle traffic bridge and getting two new rail lines, you would, logically, create additional freight rail capacity. Not only can you get more freight on rail, not only can you take more trucks off our roads but you'd actually have much greater flexibility in the way that you arrange that transport. That means that you don't necessarily have to have freight rail concentrated during the night as you currently do.

The freight rail line passes through Fremantle. A lot of people in my electorate like to see freight on rail but, if it means squealing trains at all hours of the night, that comes with amenity impacts. A new freight rail line would alleviate that.

I welcome IA's step today. I look forward to the Commonwealth supporting that bridge and I look forward to the old traffic bridge being used in future as a proper community link for active transport, bikes, walking, festivals, night markets and all those kinds of things.