Mathias Cormann (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for Finance) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak in response to an order passed by the Senate yesterday in relation to the production of documents and information related to the business case supporting the federal investment into the very important Perth Freight Link project. As Senator McGrath pointed out to the Senate yesterday, the Senate has previously passed orders for the production of documents related to the Perth Freight Link business case and the cost-benefit analysis, which is part of the business case, on five occasions. The Senate also passed an order on 12 November 2015 seeking the modelling and forecasting of freight figures, as well as peer reviews undertaken of freight figures. That motion also implicitly related to material relevant to the business case.

In response to those orders the government has provided all the information and all the documents that it could provide without harm to the public interest. The information and documents not provided in response to all these Senate orders in relation to the Perth Freight Link documents were either cabinet-in-confidence documents for the WA state government or contained information that is commercial and sensitive in nature. If they were released in a full and unredacted form they would prejudice commercial negotiations and/or would potentially damage the relations between the Commonwealth and a state government, namely the Western Australian state government.

On each occasion and as required under the Senate standing orders, other orders and conventions of the Senate, the government pointed to the public harm which would be caused by the release of relevant information and pointed to the public interest immunity grant that was claimed. Importantly, Senator McGrath yesterday tabled all of the information and all of the documents that the government has previously provided, which is the full extent of the information that the government can provide in relation to these matters. Importantly, the public interest immunity grant that the government relies on here has long been recognised by the Senate to justify the refusal to publicly release certain information and documents. In particular in this context, it is important to note that the release of the documents sought in an unredacted fashion could prejudice the settlement of the contract for section 2 of the Perth Freight Link project—or Roe 9 as it is described by the WA state government—which is not yet contracted.

We have, of course, previously released the summary of the business case in relation to the Perth Freight Link project, which was publicly released all the way back in December 2014, and further information on the project has been subsequently released by the WA government. The business case summary contains a substantial portion of key information from the business case, which was also tabled by Senator McGrath yesterday.

The reason we are having this conversation in the Senate today is because the Greens do not like roads. The Greens do not like the Perth Freight Link project—we get it. The Greens do not like Western Australia going forward. The Greens do not like the Western Australian economy being enhanced through productivity enhancing infrastructure to ensure we can reduce the cost of moving freight across Western Australia—a key trading state for our nation—reduce congestion on key arterial roads across the south metropolitan area of Perth, improve safety and generally improve the amenity for communities across the south metropolitan area of Perth. I do not have any problem with the fact that the Greens do not like roads and want to stand in the way of important investment in better roads and better infrastructure that can continue to grow a stronger and more prosperous economy where families across Australia, and in particular in Western Australia, can get ahead. They are entitled to do that in a democracy, but they are out of step with public opinion. Of course the Greens know this, which is why they are using every procedural and other trick in the book to stand in the way of this very important project, which has been independently identified by none other than Infrastructure Australia—which was established by the Labor Party in government—as one of the highest infrastructure project priorities in the country. It is an incredibly important project. It is a project that is supported by the overwhelming majority of Western Australians. Senator Ludlam knows this. He does not like it and he ignores it, but the truth is that Western Australians support the Perth Freight Link project. I point you to an article in The Sunday Times by their state political editor Joe Spagnolo in October last year when he reported this very important information. In his article he wrote:

THE vast majority of West Australians support the State Government’s … Roe 8 project, the WA Speaks survey reveals.

This was not just a survey of a couple of hundred people; this was a survey of 9,000 people. Nine thousand Western Australians have spoken and the Greens again are refusing to listen because of their ideological hatred of investment in road infrastructure.

What did this survey of 9,000 Western Australians find? If found that 60 per cent of Western Australians support the Roe Highway extension through Beeliar Wetlands and the Perth Freight Link to Fremantle. Let me not exaggerate—59.8 per cent, so just under 60 per cent, of Western Australians support this very important project and the $1.2 billion federal investment in this very important project. You might wonder if nearly 60 per cent of Western Australians support it how many are opposed to it. How many do you think? Just over 10 per cent. Thirty per cent were unsure. So 60 per cent are in favour, 30 per cent are unsure and 10 per cent are opposed—these are of course the people that the Greens are holding the Senate up for because of their ideological hatred of important investment in road infrastructure.

The Turnbull government are very proud of our record investment nationally in productivity-enhancing, economy-growing infrastructure. We are very proud of the most significant infrastructure investment in the history of Western Australia that any Commonwealth government has ever made in a single infrastructure project—namely, $1.2 billion in the Perth Freight Link project.

Senator Sterle, sadly, has left. Senator Sterle back when he used to be a supporter of the WA trucking industry actually used to be a very strong supporter of the Roe 8 and Roe 9 highway extensions to Fremantle because he could see the benefits to the trucking industry when it came to moving freight at a lower cost and more safely. The Perth Freight Link project literally will save lives. Senator Sterle used to know this. He used to get stuck into the then infrastructure minister in WA, Alannah MacTiernan. He used to come into the Senate and cry blue murder and call her all sorts of names for not supporting this critically important project.

Of course there has been a lot of misinformation spread, particularly across Fremantle and the south metropolitan area, by the Greens, particularly by Senator Ludlam, when it comes to this important project. So in order to restore the balance on this, having been given this opportunity to talk about this critically important project of national significance in Western Australia, I want to inform the Senate of some facts about the Roe 8 and 9 extensions, which are part of the Perth Freight Link.

My good friend and valued colleague the member for Tangney, Ben Morton, has provided a lot of very good information to communities across the south metropolitan region by essentially providing some facts that were circulated by the Fremantle Herald, the Melville City Herald and the Examiner. I will take you through some of the key information that is highly relevant to the debate that we are having here today. Firstly, Roe 8 and 9 are recognised by Infrastructure Australia as being part of one of the highest transport priorities in the nation.

Building Roe 8 and 9 will create up to 10,000 direct and indirect jobs. When we talked to the state government in Western Australia back in 2014 about this important project we knew we had to deal with the transition in the economy, that we had to deal with the wind down of the mining construction boom, that there would be a need to fill the gap with some other activity and that there would be an opportunity, because of the wind down in the mining construction boom with lower prices of construction, to invest in this sort of long-overdue, generational road infrastructure because we would be able to deliver it at a much lower cost than we otherwise would be able to. That is why back in 2014 we said to the state government: 'We are prepared to partner with you. We are prepared to fund 80 per cent of the government's contribution in relation to this very important project of national significance in Western Australia. We want to take advantage of the window of opportunity where construction activity across Western Australia is less than what it was, where the cost of construction is less than what it was, where we can invest in our future economic prosperity and where we can invest in our future capacity as a trading nation to get our product to market and get products from other markets moved around the Perth metropolitan area in the most efficient way possible.'

Of course the majority of traffic on Roe 8 and 9 will be cars as it provides freeway access east and west across our city to places like Perth Airport, Fiona Stanley Hospital, St John of God Hospital and Murdoch University. Previous Labor state governments in Western Australia never had any plans on how to deal with all of the traffic volume on and off the Kwinana Freeway into the Fiona Stanley Hospital. It was a complete and blatant oversight that needs to be addressed and will be addressed through this project. Roe 8 and 9 will be a free-flowing highway saving 12½ minutes in travel time between the Kwinana Freeway and Fremantle. Roe 8 and 9, importantly, will bypass 14 sets of traffic lights on Leach Highway and Stock Road, creating a safer road environment for all road users.

The last two points I have mentioned are the precise reasons why the trucking industry in Western Australia is so supportive of this project, despite the project being part financed by a freight charge. So the trucking industry in Western Australia has agreed to contribute to the cost of this project by essentially paying a toll which would apply only to trucks, not to private cars. It would apply only to trucks, because they will not have to do the stop-start that is happening at the moment with heavy loads—stop-start, which of course is very inefficient and expensive in terms of the use of the brakes and other aspects of the trucks. They will be able to have a clearer run, they will be able to cut their time, they will be able to get the products to market faster, and at a lower cost, more safely and with less wear and tear on their most important asset: their truck.

There was a second very important piece of factual information that the member for Tangney, Ben Morton, provided to communities in my home state of Western Australia, and that is the fact that the Roe 8 project is leading the way in environmental design and construction—