Christian Porter (Pearce, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I want to speak about the alignment of Gnangara Road and Whitfords Avenue in my electorate of Pearce. Unfortunately, for too long this alignment has been ignored by Western Australia's state government, despite the concept having been part of the Perth Metropolitan Regional Scheme since the 1990s. The current government has failed to build this vital infrastructure. Continued population growth in Perth's northern suburbs has compounded the traffic issues associated with this intersection and increased the demand for this much needed project to be completed. The Barnett Liberal government committed funding towards this project in 2016, only for the then replacement state Labor government to remove the funding and allocate it to other projects the following year. Now we're six years on and the traffic congestion at this intersection is substantially worse. Despite the WA Liberals committing $10 million at last year's state selection, disappointingly there's only been more silence from the state Labor government on this matter.

This project simply needs to happen. It will reduce congestion, improve traffic flow and provide greater safety for road users. It will benefit the local governments of Wanneroo and Joondalup and, importantly, the residents of Wangara, Darsh, Landsdale, Madeley and Pearsall. It requires a little bit of foresight and vision from the WA Labor government and a little bit of political will to get it done, but this project is a no-brainer. Delaying or ignoring the project would not be a viable option.