Andrew Hastie (Canning, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I have said many times in this place that Mandurah and the Peel region are in need of more public infrastructure. Development has not kept up with population growth. That fact is nowhere better illustrated than in the suburb of Lakelands. Lakelands is in North Mandurah. At the 2006 census its population was 434. By 2016, that number had exploded by more than 10 times to 4,830. If you include the immediate surrounding suburbs, the number rises to 17,298. The only train station in Mandurah was completed 10 years ago. The station has transformed our city. It has opened up access to the Perth's jobs market and injected new life into the Mandurah economy. The train line's completion was a watershed moment in the history of Mandurah, but there's more work to be done.

Building a new train station in Lakelands will create jobs and give the youth of North Mandurah greater mobility and recreational opportunity. Importantly, there will be fewer cars on the road. The people of Mandurah recognise this. At the end of 2017, I conducted a poll of more than 1,600 people who live in the north of Mandurah. Of the respondents, over 90 per cent wanted a train station built in Lakelands. I call on my colleagues in the Labor state government to work with us on this essential project. I was gratified to read in The Sunday Times that the Labor state government is listening to me on the development of the Byford train line and the Tonkin Highway extension. But Mandurah is important too. I will not let the Labor state government take the people of Mandurah for granted.