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.