Steve Irons (Swan, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I would like to speak about one of the infrastructure achievements in my electorate of Swan, which is the Gateway WA project. This year, in April, the Prime Minister came to Perth and announced that the project had been completed almost a year ahead of schedule and also well under budget.

Since coming into parliament in 2007, one of my biggest priorities has been improving the road network in my electorate of Swan. The Gateway WA project was a $1 billion upgrade of five major highway interchanges that surround Perth Airport and the Kewdale-Welshpool industrial precinct. The project was supported by both sides of parliament but put at risk by Labor's proposal to only fund the project through their extremely unsuccessful mining tax. To secure the project funding and to ensure the road safety of my constituents and the greater Western Australian population, I worked with the opposition at that time to secure a coalition commitment to complete the Gateway WA project without a mining tax.

At its peak, the project employed more than 1,000 construction workers, who were involved in the construction and upgrade of five main interchanges, the widening of Tonkin Highway to six lanes between the Great Eastern and Roe highways and upgrading Leach Highway between Tonkin Highway and Orrong Road. Gateway WA has not only eased congestion but improved safety and effectively created an increasing demand for traffic in that area. It is a great project and I thank all those who helped on it.