Skip to main content
Home
  • The Legislative Assembly meets on 16/04/2024 (01:00 PM)
    Assembly sit 16/04/2024
  • The Legislative Council meets on 16/04/2024 (01:00 PM)
    Council sit 16/04/2024
  • The Public Administration meets on 08/04/2024 (10:00 AM)
    Committee meet 08/04/2024

Parliamentary Questions


Question Without Notice No. 144 asked in the Legislative Assembly on 27 May 2021 by Mr Y. Mubarakai

Parliament: 41 Session: 1

METRONET PROJECTS

144. Mr Y. MUBARAKAI to the Minister for Transport:

I would like to start by acknowledging, on behalf of the member for Southern River and myself, the year 9 students and their teachers, Mr Ben de Vries and Mrs Jessica Crouch, from Carey Baptist College in Harrisdale.

I refer to the McGowan Labor government's record investment in job-creating transport infrastructure, including the delivery of the Metronet Thornlie–Cockburn Link and the upgrade to Ranford Road. Can the minister update the house on these two projects and how they are supporting local jobs, local businesses and local manufacturing?

Ms R. SAFFIOTI replied:

I thank the member for Jandakot for that question and I also acknowledge the support of the members for Jandakot, Cockburn and Southern River for the Thornlie–Cockburn rail line.

This project has a long history. It was promised, I think, twice by the Liberal Party when it was in government, but it never went to deliver it. We saw the frustration of the former member for Southern River, who kept claiming that the Liberal government was doing the work and would deliver it, but it did not do any work on that project. Upon winning government, we set about delivering that promise.

This is a new Metronet rail line between Thornlie and Cockburn. As part of that project, we are also upgrading associated infrastructure, and that includes the Ranford Road bridge. Those who live in the area—we know there is significant population growth there—know that that has been a congestion point for a long, long time, particularly as there has been growth in the population of that entire corridor. We are widening the Ranford Road bridge from four lanes to eight lanes—six lanes for general traffic and two lanes for busways.

The other week I visited the Ranford Road project with the local members and the member for Riverton to see the project and the work that is underway. At that milestone we saw the installation of the biggest tee-roff beams ever manufactured in Australia. One might ask what a tee-roff beam is.

Mr W.J. Johnston: What's a tee-roff beam?

Ms R. SAFFIOTI: I thank the member for Cannington! It is a specially designed beam that was initially developed in Victoria and used in projects in WA. They are lighter and allow for longer beams.

Our new beams are 50 metres long and they were manufactured in Hazelmere by Georgiou Group. Each beam weighs 197 tonnes and it took 10 workers and two concrete pump trucks three days to manufacture them. This is part of our project of delivering 1 600 new jobs. As part of employing locals, we are also training locals. We have programs like Infrastructure Ready that are being developed specifically to ensure that locals have opportunities to work on these projects. As members know, we are delivering our commitments on rail lines and we have thousands of people working on them.

It is always good to go through the history of these projects and look at what the former member for Southern River said. Although he campaigned on this and kept coming in here and saying that works had begun, nothing actually happened under the Liberal government. I will quote an article from 2015 in which Mr Abetz, who campaigned on this issue in 2008, said in relation to the 2013 state election that he thought the Liberal government's polling was doing well, and therefore it never needed to deliver it. It was also Peter Abetz who said —

� he feared that the only hope in extending the Thornlie line would lie with a future Labor Government.

Members, that is correct! The only future for that project was under a future Labor government. I am very proud of the work that is underway on the Ranford Road bridge, the massive employment opportunities and the impact and benefit it will have for that whole corridor, as more and more families move into those areas.