Sue Lines (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I want to talk tonight about the electorate of Swan. It is the electorate I live in. I have lived there for many, many years; I know the electorate really well. I can say proudly that the Swan electorate under Labor governments—both federal and state Labor governments—has been well served by investment in roads and public transport in the electorate of Swan. That is because Labor believes that roads and good public transport go hand in hand. It is a shame that neither the Turnbull government nor the local member, Mr Steve Irons, believe in public transport. It seems that a big part of Mr Irons' parliamentary career so far has been advocating for a freeway on-ramp for the city of South Perth. It might seem a trivial thing to bring to the Senate, but if I had been a little more organised I would have sought leave to table a flyer that Mr Irons sent out to the electorate; however, I do not think it is fair to lump it on the government without notice, even though it is by one of its members. The flyer is headed 'Irons takes Prime Minister to Manning Road'. Fancy spending your communications budget on a flyer that heads that up. Whoop-de-do; he took the Prime Minister to Manning Road. Let us see what happened.

The flyer goes on to say that 'since 2009'—2009; it is now 2016—apparently 'an on-ramp to the freeway is something Mr Irons has been campaigning about'. All of this came as news to me, and I am a constituent in the electorate of Swan. I did not realise that Mr Irons had been spending a substantial part of his time in the electorate of Swan advocating for an on-ramp to the freeway. It seems a bit extraordinary to me. In 2009 he apparently told Labor that we needed to do more on transport. If you have a look at what Labor have delivered in the seat of Swan, there has been the upgrade to the Great Eastern Highway, there has been the fabulous Gateway project. I am sure Western Australian senators, when they drive to the airport, will notice that fabulous new road system—all Labor's doing; nothing Mr Irons can take credit for. I guess he has been scratching his head, thinking: 'Gee whiz, I'm looking pretty bad on roads. There's nothing I can pin the Liberal badge to in this electorate. I know, I'll bring up my desire to get an on-ramp at Manning Road since 2009.' Anyway the Prime Minister, bless him, went to Manning Road.

So where are we up to with that? Of course the lack of a ramp is frustrating—I get that—but not having decent public transport is even more frustrating, and we have seen that the Abbott and Turnbull governments are not really committed to public transport. Of course, at a time when money is tight—and the WA government is breaking probably as many promises as the Turnbull government—the Main Roads department in Western Australia estimates the cost of the proposed on-ramp to Kwinana Freeway to be somewhere within the vicinity of $10 million to $18 million. No wonder Mr Irons has been advocating unsuccessfully since 2009 for this Kwinana Freeway on-ramp at Manning Road. It is just not going to happen. So imagine my surprise, as I read further into the flyer, that apparently the Prime Minister thought it warranted the government to consider funding it!

So here is Mr Irons, who has put this flyer throughout the electorate of Swan. It is nothing more than gobbledegook, not even about a promise—not even a promise that of course the Turnbull government would break. It is not even a commitment, nothing solid, but maybe it is worthy of consideration. What a waste of taxpayers' money! Quite seriously, I am sure that if Mr Irons took the time to treat his electorate of Swan with some respect he would see that there are many things that are needed in Swan that do not start at the top of the list with an on-ramp at Manning Road onto Kwinana Freeway. I would suggest that Mr Irons have a good look at his electorate and start to focus on the issues that really matter.