Melissa Parke (Fremantle, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Health) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is very hard to understand why more than $2 billion would be spent on the Perth Freight Link—a road that came out of nowhere and goes nowhere but which would cause enormous environmental and community destruction—when there are road projects that have been identified and planned for some time with clear community, transport efficiency and congestion-reducing benefits that need funding support.

The Community Connect South project requires $290 million in total funding for two major road projects to reduce chronic traffic congestion on Armadale Road in the Cockburn Central area. This much needed infrastructure will also have the benefit of linking two major activity centres and of connecting an area of strong population growth to an area that is becoming an employment hub.

There are two components: first, a dual carriageway for the length of Armadale Road and, second, a bridge and freeway interchange that will link Armadale Road and North Lake Road. People in my electorate—especially those who live in Success and Cockburn Central, on the west side of the Kwinana Freeway, and those who live in Atwell, Banjup and Hammond Park, on the east side of the freeway—are seriously affected by the current inadequacy of Armadale Road and the dysfunction at the intersection with North Lake Road. I am glad to support Community Connect South, and I am pleased that federal Labor has pledged to provide the Commonwealth half of the funding in government.

The Prime Minister claims to lead a party of jobs, growth and infrastructure. If that is so, he should commit to funding the Community Connect South project, which would deliver jobs, growth and infrastructure. It would be a win-win-win, both for the people in my electorate of Fremantle and for the people of Canning.