Scott Ludlam (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I cannot help feeling a little bit sorry for Senator Fifield, because it is your job to walk in here and just read the words that they have given you, and then the words come out. I do not know, Senator Fifield, whether you have actually visited Perth since 1955 or so, which was when the Perth Freight Link components were first put on the planning books.

This project is a total disaster, and the Barnett government is in meltdown over it. Transport minister Dean Nalder did not even know that the project was still subject to Commonwealth environmental impact assessment. The scale of incompetence and the potential waste of up to $2½ billion dollars of taxpayers' money is like nothing I have ever seen in my time here.

I want to thank Senator Sterle from the opposition—and, hopefully, the crossbenchers for their support for this inquiry. It is our proposal to call Minister Nalder and Main Roads Western Australia. If this project is so great, let's see any evidence at all and let the argument stand or fall on its merits.

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