Alannah Mactiernan (Perth, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Liberal Party has unlimited money to spend on promoting itself in the Canning electorate but it has no money to support the community. This morning the Comment News (Armadale) featured a full front-page ad purporting that the Abbott government was fixing Armadale Road. But of course, reading the fine print, we see that that they are not fixing Armadale Road. They are not committing a single cent to this $290-million project, a project that is absolutely critical for the tens of thousands of residents of the suburbs mushrooming along Armadale Road. These communities need to access the job and education rich areas to their north and to their west. They are experiencing up to a nine-kilometre gridlock every morning as residents attempt to access the Kwinana Freeway and the Perth to Mandurah rail line. This is critical infrastructure for the southern suburbs of Perth.

The Community Connect South project, which duplicates the Armadale Road and builds a new North Lake Road bridge, is well designed and well planned. Labor has committed $145 million to this much needed project. We have also committed $25 million to fix Denny Avenue in Kelmscott. And we have committed $3.2 million to help fight the ice epidemic in Canning, guaranteeing funding for two rehabilitation centres.