❓ The Minister for Transport responds to questions regarding regional road safety improvements, highlighting current projects and contrasting the government's investment with that of the previous Liberal-National coalition, while also criticising the Liberal party.
AnsweredQoN 680Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
ROAD SAFETY — REGIONS
680. Ms R.S. STEPHENS to the Minister for Transport:
I refer to the Cook Labor
government's commitment to delivering safety improvements on regional
roads.
(1) C an the minister update the house on the delivery of
safety improvements through the regional road safety program ?
(2) Can the
minister advise the house how this record of sustained investment compares with
the record of the Liberals and Nationals WA?
680. Ms R.S. STEPHENS to the Minister for Transport:
I refer to the Cook Labor
government's commitment to delivering safety improvements on regional
roads.
(1) C an the minister update the house on the delivery of
safety improvements through the regional road safety program ?
(2) Can the
minister advise the house how this record of sustained investment compares with
the record of the Liberals and Nationals WA?
AnswerView source ↗
I also
congratulate Madam Speaker on her incredible time in Parliament and also her
ministerial legacy.
(1)–(2) I thank the member for the question. Isn't
it great that we have such strong regional representation in this Parliament.
Working with all our regional members, we have been delivering record spending
on our regional roads. For example, the Albany ring-road is taking hundreds of
trucks off the roads through the centre of
town and onto the new deviation. In the Kimberley, we are working on the
Brooking Channel Brid ge, which is nearing completion, together with the
Fitzroy Bridge and other work replacing single-lane bridges with two-lane bridges. We are making sure that we have safer
roads through the Kimberley . Of course, we have Bunbury Outer Ring Road,
member for Bunbury and other members in this place, and Wilman Wadandi Highway
is nearing completion. We had the opportunity to inspect the works that have
been undertaken to improve road safety, reduce congestion and support the
growth of all those key areas, including Bunbury and its surrounds. Of course,
there is more in the pipeline. The biggest achievement will probably have to be
the $1 billion regional road safety program that we are rolling out across the
state. That $1 billion is improving road safety and making our roads safer by
widening the shoulders and installing audible edge lines and centre lines.
It
may come as a shock, but after seven and a half years I have received some
questions on notice from the opposition. One question asked us to outline how
much work we have done on the regional road safety program. I thought it was a Dorothy
Dixer, but anyway. We went through and highlighted the amount of work that we have done. I will go through
it, because it asked by road. The first is that 7 800 kilometres of
highway has been upgraded, with another 1 200 kilometres of works in progress.
Let us go to some key roads or highways around the place. Upgrades have been
made to 1 756 kilometres of Great Northern Highway, the whole 721 kilometres of
Eyre Highway, 575 kilometres of North West Coastal Highway, and 288 kilometres
of Albany Highway, plus there have been works on 100 more roads and highways. I
will not go through them all, because it might take a bit of time.
Let us compare this record with
the previous government's record, just to see the difference. Of
course, we know that when the Nationals WA was in government and had access to
Treasury, it did not think that roads were a priority.
In fact, then leader Brendon Grylls said about the royalties for regions
program, ''We haven't spent a lot of money on roads.''
That is an understatement. It spent nearly nothing on roads, and, as a result,
there is a lot of catching up to do. Let us do another comparison. Let us look
at how much of the road safety program we have rolled out a year
compared with the former government. Members
would be shocked and appalled to know that under its term of government, over
the years that it rolled out its program, it was improving or upgrading
about 300 kilometres a year. Our average is 1 800 kilometres a year, which
shows what we are doing in regional WA. We are improving road safety and also
making sure we deliver those projects that communities had been waiting for,
like the Albany ring-road and Bunbury Outer Ring Road.
Going back to my initial point,
isn't it great to have strong regional members who are not of the
extreme right of the Liberal Party, like in the Liberal Party itself. Today we
saw the Leader of the Liberal Party refuse to intervene on the appalling
behaviour of the Liberal candidate for Mandurah. She had not read his comments
and had not even spoken to her own Liberal candidate, saying that it is a matter
for the Liberal Party. The Leader of the Liberal Party cannot stand up to the
appalling behaviour in her own party. That is because, as we know, the Liberal
Party is being led by Nick Goiran and the extreme right and does not reflect
what modern Western Australia is and will always continue to be.
congratulate Madam Speaker on her incredible time in Parliament and also her
ministerial legacy.
(1)–(2) I thank the member for the question. Isn't
it great that we have such strong regional representation in this Parliament.
Working with all our regional members, we have been delivering record spending
on our regional roads. For example, the Albany ring-road is taking hundreds of
trucks off the roads through the centre of
town and onto the new deviation. In the Kimberley, we are working on the
Brooking Channel Brid ge, which is nearing completion, together with the
Fitzroy Bridge and other work replacing single-lane bridges with two-lane bridges. We are making sure that we have safer
roads through the Kimberley . Of course, we have Bunbury Outer Ring Road,
member for Bunbury and other members in this place, and Wilman Wadandi Highway
is nearing completion. We had the opportunity to inspect the works that have
been undertaken to improve road safety, reduce congestion and support the
growth of all those key areas, including Bunbury and its surrounds. Of course,
there is more in the pipeline. The biggest achievement will probably have to be
the $1 billion regional road safety program that we are rolling out across the
state. That $1 billion is improving road safety and making our roads safer by
widening the shoulders and installing audible edge lines and centre lines.
It
may come as a shock, but after seven and a half years I have received some
questions on notice from the opposition. One question asked us to outline how
much work we have done on the regional road safety program. I thought it was a Dorothy
Dixer, but anyway. We went through and highlighted the amount of work that we have done. I will go through
it, because it asked by road. The first is that 7 800 kilometres of
highway has been upgraded, with another 1 200 kilometres of works in progress.
Let us go to some key roads or highways around the place. Upgrades have been
made to 1 756 kilometres of Great Northern Highway, the whole 721 kilometres of
Eyre Highway, 575 kilometres of North West Coastal Highway, and 288 kilometres
of Albany Highway, plus there have been works on 100 more roads and highways. I
will not go through them all, because it might take a bit of time.
Let us compare this record with
the previous government's record, just to see the difference. Of
course, we know that when the Nationals WA was in government and had access to
Treasury, it did not think that roads were a priority.
In fact, then leader Brendon Grylls said about the royalties for regions
program, ''We haven't spent a lot of money on roads.''
That is an understatement. It spent nearly nothing on roads, and, as a result,
there is a lot of catching up to do. Let us do another comparison. Let us look
at how much of the road safety program we have rolled out a year
compared with the former government. Members
would be shocked and appalled to know that under its term of government, over
the years that it rolled out its program, it was improving or upgrading
about 300 kilometres a year. Our average is 1 800 kilometres a year, which
shows what we are doing in regional WA. We are improving road safety and also
making sure we deliver those projects that communities had been waiting for,
like the Albany ring-road and Bunbury Outer Ring Road.
Going back to my initial point,
isn't it great to have strong regional members who are not of the
extreme right of the Liberal Party, like in the Liberal Party itself. Today we
saw the Leader of the Liberal Party refuse to intervene on the appalling
behaviour of the Liberal candidate for Mandurah. She had not read his comments
and had not even spoken to her own Liberal candidate, saying that it is a matter
for the Liberal Party. The Leader of the Liberal Party cannot stand up to the
appalling behaviour in her own party. That is because, as we know, the Liberal
Party is being led by Nick Goiran and the extreme right and does not reflect
what modern Western Australia is and will always continue to be.
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