Dennis Jensen (Tangney, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I would like to update the House on an issue of major and immediate importance to my electorate of Tangney. Section 8 of Roe Highway is a much-needed extension to an arterial road link in the WA transport network. Under the stewardship of the Liberal state government, economic growth is 14.5 per cent. Our main stumbling block is the misguided and myopic ideology of Labor. They have become a party of no, nay, never. If this project is not built, the number of trucks on Leach Highway will continue to increase, Kwinana Freeway will become more congested and access to the new Fiona Stanley Hospital will be severely restricted. Federal government funding will be needed to ensure the whole project is built. The new Fiona Stanley Hospital and Murdoch Activity Centre will place extra pressure on the road network in the area.

Fremantle's harbour is forecast to reach capacity within the next decade, doubling to 1.2 million containers per year. The efficiency of transport will suffer unless Roe 8 is built, causing significant damage to the state's economy. Twenty per cent of Western Australia's economy is linked to trade going in and out of Fremantle. Heavy vehicles and other road freight transport account for around 22 per cent of traffic on key access routes to the Fremantle Ports inner harbour.

Roe 8 would be a purpose-built highway, allowing these heavy vehicles to be removed from residential and commercial areas, thereby reducing the danger they pose. Stage 8 is forecast to service 55,000 to 75,000 vehicles a day in 2031, vehicles that would otherwise be required to travel along existing roads—namely, Leach Highway and South Street. The Roe Highway extension will provide a route designed for the safe and efficient movement of these heavy vehicles which will be north of 6,000 vehicles a day.

The Roe 8 extension requires a Commonwealth funding contribution, just as the Commonwealth has contributed to previous extensions of the Roe Highway. WA is a booming economy, attracting people from all over the world to live and work. Roe 8 will service an area known as the Western Trade Coast. This corridor turns over some $16 billion and employs some 15,000 people, and will double in another five years. The infrastructure needs to be put in place. The crux of the issue is sustainability. Everyone here knows that if we fail to plan then we plan to fail. Let that not be the future.