Matt Keogh (Burt, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I stand in this place today to celebrate a win I have been fighting for for over a decade. It's something you've all heard me go on and on about since the first time I set foot in this parliament. It's the Denny Avenue railway level crossing in Kelmscott, which is just down the road from my office and is Western Australia's most dangerous level crossing and, indeed, its most dangerous 400-metre stretch of road. In the past five years alone, more than 100 crashes have been recorded on this short road.

I'm proud to stand here today and tell you that work on fixing this level crossing and replacing it with a new underpass and elevated rail line will begin in 2019. I first began working on getting this level crossing fixed in the early 2000s as a community representative on the consultative group for the Armadale redevelopment authority. After being dubbed the state's most dangerous road, the crossing remained neglected for many years. It was ignored by successive state and federal Liberal governments, but, in 2015, I secured a commitment from federal Labor to replace that level crossing, which we recommitted to at the last federal election. Then, working with my state counterpart, Armadale state member Tony Buti, we saw the election of the new McGowan WA Labor government and, through their commitment of funding and the pressure on this federal government by us, federal representatives from WA, we have been able to see our dream realised by the replacement of this level crossing, starting in 2019, with a new underpass, making the trip for so many commuters in my electorate safer and faster.