Ian Goodenough (Moore, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Population growth in the northern coastal suburbs of the Perth metropolitan area is placing increasing demands on our community infrastructure, road network and essential services. New house starts are now at their highest level in 20 years. New loans for first home buyers have reached their highest level in nearly 12 years. Based on the current information available, the population of the city of Joondalup is expected to grow by 10,000 residents by 2030 while the population of the northern coastal suburbs from Alkimos up to Yanchep is projected to grow by 60,000 residents. Overall, our region is expected to grow by 70,000 residents over the next eight years. This has implications for Joondalup as a regional city as our infrastructure and services, such as health, education, aged care and sporting facilities, must cater for on average 9,000 new residents each year. All levels of government—federal, state and local—must work cooperatively to plan ahead to meet the growing demands caused by residential growth in our wider region.

Census day for 2021 is 10 August. This is when the Australian Bureau of Statistics will conduct its nationwide five-yearly survey of our demographics to collect the essential data required to aid government in planning and decision-making to meet the future requirements of our community. Increased funding is required for health, aged care, roads, and sporting and community facilities. During this debate I will outline our local needs in these areas and advocate for increased funding.

Joondalup hospital has been under considerable pressure from our burgeoning population, with patients enduring long waiting times of several hours in the emergency department—well in excess of the standard four-hour benchmark—and high levels of ambulance ramping, where patients are kept waiting in vehicles because—

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There are high levels of ambulance ramping, where patients are kept waiting in vehicles because there's no capacity to admit them to the hospital. To alleviate the situation, the federal government delivered $10.4 million in 2019 for a health clinic in Yanchep to take some of the pressure off Joondalup hospital's emergency department. However, the building has still not even been commenced.

Due to certain routine medical treatments not being available locally in Joondalup, numerous patients routinely have to travel long distances to Royal Perth Hospital or Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital, a round trip of two hours. In some cases, for treatments such as dialysis there is a waiting list at Joondalup due to the wards being at full capacity. I call upon the McGowan WA state Labor government to provide increased activity based funding to Joondalup hospital for more specialist medical services so that local residents can receive essential treatment locally.

Moving on to aged care, I note that the ageing demographics of our population mean that one in five residents within Moore is aged over 60 years. The provision of care and services of a high standard of quality for our elderly must remain a priority for government. As a growing population of retirees settle into our developing suburbs, it is important to ensure that the necessary funding is delivered to meet the needs of our seniors, ensuring that residential aged-care places are adequately funded in order to reduce the long waiting lists for families.

With the certainty of ongoing funding for places, leading aged-care providers have plans in progress to develop purpose-built modern new facilities to accommodate up to 448 seniors in Moore over the next few years. Southern Cross Care WA has gained approval for a health and wellness precinct for seniors, including an aged-care facility for up to 138 seniors. This includes 88 residential care beds and up to 50 age-in-place apartments on the corner of Burns Beach Road and Connolly Drive in Currambine. Aegis Aged Care Group plans to operate a 140-suite aged care centre at the retirement village on the corner of Collier Pass and Joondalup Drive. Amana Living has started construction of its Kinross Care Centre for dementia patients next to its current operations. The new three-storey building will provide 96 beds. These new developments, in addition to our existing retirement facilities, will provide a wide variety of accommodation options for our seniors to suit their individual needs and circumstances.

In terms of road infrastructure, to better connect the estate with the Joondalup community, I support the City of Wanneroo's case for upgrading Flynn Drive to create the Neerabup Strategic Link. The Neerabup industrial area is located within 10 kilometres of the Joondalup CBD and is expected to grow larger than the Canning Vale industrial area. This industrial hub will support the Joondalup city centre by utilising services, retail and hospitality. Currently the Neerabup industrial area has two main east-west access points. These access points are single carriageways and are not suitable for the growing volume of traffic. Without the required upgrades the industrial area will fail to attract the appropriate level of business investment, resulting in less employment for local residents.

The development of Flynn Drive will connect Neerabup with the key east-west road connections needed to move goods within the City of Wanneroo and regional freight links including NorthLink and the Perth Darwin National Highway. The City of Wanneroo has advocated for the Flynn Drive upgrade since 2014, unsuccessfully applying for federal funding under the National Stronger Regions Fund in 2014, 2015 and 2016 and under the Building Better Regions Fund in 2018. The City of Wanneroo is advocating for four main projects that will make up the east-west development corridor deemed essential to unlocking the Neerabup industrial area. These projects are the upgrading and duplication of Flynn Drive; the realignment of Meeves Road; the construction of the Whiteman Yanchep Highway; and the upgrade of the Whitfords Avenue-Gnangara Road intersection. These four projects work together to maximise the economic benefits of Neerabup and Wangara industrial areas. The cost of upgrading Flynn Drive is estimated to be between $25 million and $30 million, which is critical to increasing the development of lots in the Neerabup industrial area.

In terms of sporting facilities, currently the residents of the entire northern corridor utilise the indoor 50-metre pool at HBF Arena Joondalup and, to some extent, the outdoor 50-metre pool at Craigie Leisure Centre. This means that the City of Joondalup's aquatic facilities services a population of more than 300,000 residents, catering for school swimming lessons, swimming carnivals and community use. This effectively means that the residents of the City of Joondalup living in my electorate have to share this facility with patrons to the north, crowding out locals as the swimming pool is at full capacity with bookings. This demand is set to continue, with the WA Department of Education projecting that 28 new primary schools and seven new high schools will be built between Alkimos and Two Rocks over the next few years. There is a need for a regional aquatic facility and recreation centre in the Alkimos-Yanchep corridor. The City of Wanneroo has developed a concept plan for the North Coast Aquatic and Recreation Centre, which is expected to cost $55 million. To date, funding of $25 million has been secured, which leaves a shortfall of $30 million in the funding required. There is a strong case, based on merit and precedent, for significant federal government contributions for this aquatic facility based on its regional nature.

I have outlined how the projected population growth in our northern coastal suburbs is placing increased demand on local health services, aged care and sporting facilities. We must adopt a regional approach to securing funding for these facilities as our population is relatively mobile and transcends neighbouring federal electoral boundaries. I strongly make the case for my grievances on behalf of my local community to be noted, and I advocate for additional funding for the abovementioned projects.