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.