Rick Wilson (O'Connor, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to welcome a budget initiative for the Goldfields region of my electorate. Located in the outback 600 kilometres east of Perth, Kalgoorlie-Boulder has seen many engineering breakthroughs overcome the tyranny of distance. First there was the Goldfields pipeline, engineered by CY O'Connor, after whom my electorate was named. Piping precious water from Perth, O'Connor effectively enabled the gold rush of the 1890s. Then, in 1917, the rail gauge was standardised east of Kalgoorlie, connecting the railways of east Australia and Western Australia for the first time. Today, however, a rail bottleneck is hindering mining companies and processing industries from transporting their product to port. But that will hopefully change.

Yesterday Treasurer Frydenberg announced $2 million to assess the feasibility of the Kalgoorlie rail realignment project. A realigned track would service a multimodal transport hub plan for Kalgoorlie's western suburbs. Last week in Kalgoorlie I chaired a high-level meeting of processing, mining and transporting businesses that overwhelmingly support the realignment. Major resource companies including Northern Star, Lynas Rare Earths, Beacon Minerals and Adelaide Brighton were all represented. They all indicated they would benefit from the project and agreed it would be a major boost for the Goldfields economy. I take this opportunity to thank the city of Kalgoorlie-Boulder for their great work in support of this proposal. I also congratulate all the parties for coming together to help make the Kalgoorlie rail realignment project a reality.