Question Without Notice No. 325 asked in the Legislative Council on 9 May 2018 by Hon Simon O’Brien
Parliament: 40 Session: 1
ROE HIGHWAY STAGES 5, 6 AND 7 — FEDERAL FUNDING AGREEMENT
325. Hon SIMON O'BRIEN to the minister representing the Minister for Transport:
I refer to question without notice 299 of Tuesday, 8 May 2018 in which I asked the minister to table the terms of the agreement with the then commonwealth government under which commonwealth funds were provided towards the costs of building Roe Highway stages 5, 6 and 7. In response to that question, the minister provided a document, being a letter dated 6 June 2002 to the Commissioner of Main Roads advising that funds had been approved and asking that the commissioner liaise with relevant environmental agencies under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999.
(1) Does this document represent the totality of the terms of agreement between the state and the commonwealth?
(2) Is it the case that the commonwealth government provided the funding without any condition beyond that the funding be expended on building Roe Highway?
(3) To put the matter beyond doubt, was any undertaking required by the commonwealth and/or given by the state, either explicitly or implicitly, that funding was subject to the state government retaining in the metropolitan region scheme the remaining Roe Highway road reserve?
Hon STEPHEN DAWSON replied:
I thank the honourable member for some notice of the question. The following information has been provided to me by the Minister for Transport; Planning; Lands.
(1) Yes.
(2) No.
(3) There was considerable communication between both state and federal ministers on these projects at the time.
Hon Simon O'Brien interjected.
The PRESIDENT: Order! You might get the opportunity for another question if you are quiet now.