Matt Keogh (Burt, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am very glad to rise today, of all days, to speak on investment in infrastructure—the day of the birthday of the member for Grayndler. But I cannot imagine that the member for Grayndler, that great champion of infrastructure in this nation, has had many happy birthdays over the last four years, given the Abbott-Turnbull Liberal government's utter failure to invest in productive infrastructure for our country's needs.

I just want to take you through a few of the great projects that the government claims to have given to the great state of Western Australia, some of which you may have heard of, Mr Deputy Speaker Goodenough. We have the Gateway project. This is one of my favourite projects not only because it allows the people of my electorate to get to the airport quickly so they can get on a plane to fly up to their places of employment in Karratha, Pannawonica and other centres in the north-west of Western Australia but also because this project was, in my view, famously opened by the former Prime Minister, Tony Abbott, which was quite interesting because he opened it and it was not finished. But he had his comeuppance on that because, clearly, the people in his own party thought that was such a bad idea that two weeks later they got rid of him—that is how much they thought of that project.

The member for Grayndler mentioned before the NorthLink project, another Labor government funded project rebadged by this government so they can try and claim credit for it. Then we have—and this is one of the minister's favourites—the Forrestfield Railway development to the airport. What is great about that project is that the government, in this chamber, loves to claim that that is a project that they funded as a rail project in Western Australia. But no, the funding for that project was to make up for this government's failure to fix the GST allocation problem for Western Australia. When you look at the budget, when you look at the tables and you see how much of the budget is allocated for rail, it is very clear; there is a very lovely table there. And I use that term 'lovely' ironically because, when you look at WA and when you look at money for rail, it says '$0'. That is how much this government thinks about investing in productive infrastructure for Western Australia.

I would like to also cover some of the projects that this government should be spending money on to make sure that we have adequate and productive infrastructure in Western Australia, particularly for the people of Burt. One of the great projects that Labor committed to at the last federal election and that WA Labor has committed to at this state election is not only the building of the new Armadale Road bridge or the new North Lake Road bridge—depending on which side of the freeway you like to come from—but also bringing forward the widening of Armadale Road. This is a critical piece of infrastructure to make sure the people in my electorate are able to get to jobs closer to the coast. That is why the state member, Tony Buti, and Labor candidates, Barry Urban and Yaz Mubarakai have been out there championing this Labor project, to make sure that we are able to have that productive infrastructure. I have been very happy to work with my colleague the member for Fremantle on making sure this project comes to fruition because just building the road, as the member for Tangney will know, will not be enough; we also need the bridge.

Do you know what is interesting? The local state member for where the bridge actually is, the Liberal member, seems to deny that that this is a useful project. I cannot really say he goes around denying it because, from all reports, 'No-Show Joe' does not show up anywhere to talk about this project—or about anything else for that matter.

We then of course have that great project of removing the Denny Avenue level crossing. This is the most dangerous level crossing in Western Australia. Denny Avenue is also the most dangerous road in Western Australia when it comes to traffic accidents. What has been interesting is that the state Liberal government said there is no problem here. The federal Liberal government said: 'No, we're not going to fix it.' The member for Canning, during the by-election, said he was going to fix it on his how-to-vote cards yet there was no other mention of it whatsoever. They have denied saying it ever since and have done nothing about it. Federal Labor committed to fixing Denny Avenue, and WA Labor is committed to fixing Denny Avenue, because we understand, as does the state member for Armadale, Tony Buti, and WA candidate for Darling Range, Barry Urban, that this is a critical piece of congestion and a road safety issue that needs to be fixed in Western Australia, if we are to have productive infrastructure that allows people to get to work safely, to get to school safety.

In closing, right now the WA economy is desperate for a boost. We need to have investment through infrastructure development, and that is why we need to see the election of a Mark McGowan WA Labor government on 11 March because they understand these priorities. (Time expired)

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