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Parliamentary Questions


Question Without Notice No. 207 asked in the Legislative Assembly on 5 April 2022 by Mr S.J. Price

Parliament: 41 Session: 1

JOBS — RAILCAR MANUFACTURING — BELLEVUE

207. MR S.J. PRICE to the Minister for Transport:

I refer to the McGowan Labor government's investment in local jobs through the delivery of Metronet and by bringing railcar manufacturing back to WA.

(1) Can the minister update the house on the Metronet railcar manufacturing and assembly facility in Bellevue and the delivery of locally built C-series railcars, as well as the progress in delivering the Metronet Morley–Ellenbrook line?

(2) Can the minister advise the house how this investment in local jobs compares with that of the previous Liberal–National government?

Mr R.S. Love interjected.

The SPEAKER: Member, I will actually enjoy this answer.

Ms R. SAFFIOTI replied:

(1)–(2) Thank you, Madam Speaker. The member for Moore is not the opposition spokesperson for Metronet anymore, so he should not be too concerned. They have moved that to the upper house.

Last week, we saw that new railcars manufactured here in Western Australia, in Bellevue, had left the manufacturing shed and moved into the high-voltage transmission testing shed. For the first time in 30 years, Western Australians are building our railcars here in Western Australia. The manufacturing facility is an incredible site. It is very modern. As the executive from Alstom said, we have some of the best manufacturing facilities in the world here in Bellevue in Western Australia. The first railcars have left the manufacturing shed to go into the testing sheds, and we will see our railcars on our tracks by the end of this year.

Of course, today we visited another significant project—another project the opposition said could not be done. That, of course, is the Ellenbrook rail line and the works happening around Bayswater, including the new Broun Avenue Bridge, and the works happening to ensure that we can get that rail line operating. Currently, we have over 10 000 workers on our Metronet projects. We are creating jobs and creating infrastructure for future generations. What was the opposition's view on all this? It committed to the Ellenbrook rail line twice. When we won government in 2017, what work had been done? Zero! From scratch, we are delivering the Ellenbrook rail line.

On the issue of railcars, it was the Liberal–National coalition government that closed the Midland Workshops. What did its members say when we committed to building railcars in Western Australia? The former Leader of the Opposition said railcar manufacturing was an unsustainable, failed manufacturing industry and just a waste of money, and that we should not bring back industries from a bygone era. Well, members, what we are doing is that we are bringing high-value, high-tech manufacturing to our railcars and we are creating our railcars here in Western Australia. We are also building the rail lines and the new stations that will soon be welcoming those railcars as we transform the public transport system throughout the suburbs.