More Perth Freight Link rally attracts 1,000 protesters in Fremantle

source: abc news

Perth Freight Link rally attracts 1,000 protesters in Fremantle

 

About 1,000 people have marched through Fremantle in protest over the WA Government's contentious $1.6 billion Perth Freight Link project. 

The heavy transport route, linking Perth's industrial eastern suburbs to Fremantle Port, is opposed by residents who face losing their homes.

Labor has also been critical of the Government's planning process, seizing on an Infrastructure Australia report last month which it said showed the project had been hastily conceived.

Federal MP Alannah MacTiernan today told the crowd Labor would immediately allocate money towards a study into a new outer harbour at Kwinana if it won the next federal election.

"We will allocate $2 million to the State Government to restart that planning on the outer harbour and to get an application in as soon as possible to Infrastructure Australia so we can have sensible, well-considered investment into this state," she said.

"We want infrastructure that is really going to benefit the people of this state, benefit jobs.... ensure we remain a competitive economy."

The State Government has said it believes both the Perth Freight Link and the new outer harbour are important pieces of infrastructure for the city's future, but Labor argues the freight link should be scrapped and wants work to begin on the outer harbour.

Conservationists have also argued a crucial component of the project, linking Roe Highway from the Kwinana Freeway to Stock Road, will impact the Beeliar Wetlands in Perth's southern suburbs.

Freight Link 'the right thing for WA': Minister

But the Transport Minister Dean Nalder said the project had been well-planned and was environmentally responsible.

"Roe 8 is a fantastic project and a very important project for shifting freight," he said at the opening of a Gateway WA project interchange in Forrestfield.

"At the moment the number of trucks that are growing on Kwinana Freeway and intermingling with passenger vehicles is very large.

"With the Roe 8 section it takes it across to Stock Road, which will service both the inner harbour and the outer harbour when it's developed.

"We understand there's concerns whenever we do something that impacts on natural vegetation, we need to make sure we've looked at it carefully, we followed due-process, and I'm very comfortable the process has been done properly and we're doing the right thing and the responsible thing for Western Australia."

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