IRRESPONSIBLE FREIGHT LINK THREATENS WA’S GROWTH

THE HON ALANNAH MACTIERNAN MP
SHADOW PARLIAMENTARY SECRETARY FOR WESTERN AUSTRALIA
SHADOW PARLIAMENTARY SECRETARY FOR REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND INFRASTRUCTURE
MEMBER FOR PERTH

IRRESPONSIBLE FREIGHT LINK T
HREATENS WA’S GROWTH

The $1.76 billion Perth Freight Link lobbed like a UFO onto the Abbott Government’s first Budget in May 2014.

The sorry genesis of this project tells us a lot about the absurdly partisan way the Abbott Government does business. 

At the beginning of 2014 the Federal Government had a problem. It was about to take $500 million out of the Budget promised to Perth rail project, because Tony Abbott had declared he would never fund urban rail. 

The Abbott Government knew it had to fill that hole to stop an uprising in WA, a state already suffering from a plummeting GST share.

So Assistant Infrastructure Minister Jamie Briggs and Finance Minister Mathias Cormann flew across the Nullarbor in February to sit down with our Transport Minister Dean Nalder.

Mr Nalder went in to pitch for funds for an outer harbour at Kwinana – a plan developed over 20 years by successive governments, both Liberal and Labor, to keep WA’s economy growing once Fremantle port reached its capacity around 2022.

Even the Barnett Government had continued this planning – its 2008 ‘Vision for the Port of Fremantle’ committed the Liberal Party to progressing the outer harbour, and right up until mid-2014, WA Government agencies were still assessing the project.

But 45 minutes into the meeting, Mr Nalder walked out with a cobbled together mix of the Roe Highway Stage 8 extension and upgrades to Fremantle roads in his hand – rebranded as the Perth Freight Link. 

In fact, Freedom of Information searches have shown us that the first contact between Commonwealth and State agencies to provide advice on the cost-benefit and design of the project occurred in mid-March 2014, just two months before it was announced. There was no careful planning and no Infrastructure Australia assessment prior to the announcement.

The problems with this project have been well documented; the destruction of wetlands, the threat to homes and businesses, the ludicrous fact that it stops 1.5km short of the port, forcing a bottleneck at Stirling Bridge. Dealing with the latter two problems will add at least $700 million to the project. 

But the real threat to WA’s future is throwing billions of dollars at a short-term solution that does not address the need for a new port in less than 10 years. 

That’s why infrastructure projects need extensive and transparent planning: to ensure the dollars are being spent in the most effective places.

In 2002 the WA Labor Government undertook an exhaustive freight network review to work out how best to deal with WA’s growing freight needs. 

We knew back then that smashing a highway through suburban Fremantle to reach a port that was nearing capacity wasn’t the answer – that’s why we removed the Fremantle Eastern Bypass from Perth’s planning schemes. 

So we developed a six-point plan for freight. Part of that did involve road upgrades through Fremantle – but critically, it involved planning on the outer harbour as a matter of urgency. 

So much so that Labor committed to building the outer harbour in 2005.

The Perth Freight Link is an irresponsible, ill-planned project that will worsen the congestion problems around Fremantle and threaten WA’s future freight trade growth by leaving us short of critical port capacity. 

If the Barnett and Abbott Governments are serious about future proofing WA’s industries they should get on with planning and developing the outer harbour, and avoid wasting scarce taxpayer money on outdated roads to a constrained port. 

This article was first published in The Sunday Times on Sunday, 30 August 2015.