Matt O'Sullivan (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Treasury Laws Amendment (2023 Law Improvement Package No. 1) Bill 2023. The expenditure of this government is always in question. Their priorities should always be subject to analysis and we should be looking at what they are doing. One of the things I am very concerned about is in my home state of Western Australia. In an area that I know you know particularly well, Acting Deputy President Smith, the Canning Vale area, there is a significant project committed to by the former government. It was the Garden Street flyover bridge. Sadly, that project is subject to the 90-day review. It has been about 130 days and counting since that review was commenced and we still don't have an answer. This is a considerable concern to local residents in that area because this is a key project that really should go ahead.

The RAC, the Royal Automotive Club, in Western Australia has identified this as one of the top accident hot spot intersections in all of the metropolitan area. Significant accidents, significant injuries occur there every year. Those local to the area know that when you drive through there it is heavily congested, particularly in peak-hour period. It is currently a roundabout with a huge amount of traffic going through it. You really do have to run the gauntlet when you pull up to that intersection. My parents live down the road from that area and there is no break in the traffic in either direction; the four roads intersect. It is very, very dangerous. There needs to be a flyover bridge built. It was identified as the solution for that intersection. Sadly, it is subject to this review, too much time has lapsed and no decision has been made. Further to that, we have learnt this government has done nothing in planning for this particular project.

This was a project committed to some 18 months ago under the former government yet nothing has happened. There has been no progress whatsoever. I know this because I met with the City of Gosnells last week to discuss this particular project and there has been no forward planning, no engineering and no design has been done. So it does beg the question: What is the priority of the government and will they bring it forward? This is a critical project.

The member for Tangney, Mr Lim, says this project will go ahead but we haven't seen any evidence that in fact it will. Why is the government not coming out and saying what projects will be included, what projects will go ahead? It's not acceptable, because every day and month that goes by is further time during which accidents can happen and congestion can continue in this vital area. This is on the edge of Canning Vale, in the industrial area, which is a significant industrial area in Perth. We have huge industry there. There are trucks that come through there. Significant amounts of freight flow through that area, and it's incredibly unsafe.

The other thing that's happening is that there is a new train station that's being built there as part of the Metronet project, the linking of Thornlie to Cockburn, and when that train station is finally built it will obviously drive—excuse the pun—significant traffic through that intersection, even more than there already is, because it will be literally right in the vicinity of the entrance of the car park to that train station. They're building a car park with many thousands of bays at this train station. It's going to be a major pedestrian and vehicle ingress and egress area, and of course this project is vital to ensuring the safety of people going through that area.

A week or so ago I took down the shadow minister for infrastructure, Bridget McKenzie. We personally went there. She was good enough to come out and visit the location, and she joined me in calling for the government to just get on with this project. The fact is that there's been an absolute silence from the government. Admittedly the member for Tangney has said that he's committed to it, but what is the government doing about this? This is a critical project that must go ahead.