LEVEL
CROSSINGS — REGIONS
657. Ms M.J. DAVIES to the Minister for Transport:
I refer to the regional Australia
level crossing safety program introduced by the former Liberal–National
coalition government in its March budget, reconfirmed in yesterday's
Labor federal budget.
(1) With federal
funding secured, will the state government provide its share of funding to
ensure this program delivers improved safety for regional Western Australians?
(2) When can Western
Australians expect to see the upgrades to the passive level crossings needed in
their regions?
Ms R.
SAFFIOTI replied:
(1)–(2) I
think I went through these figures last week and showed that we pretty much
increased the amount we are providing for level crossing safety in regional WA
by about 100 per cent from about five years ago. We have basically doubled the
amount we are putting into level crossing safety, we are upgrading passive crossings to active crossings and we are improving
pedestrian safety. The member for Murray–Wellington may remember that we were out in Harvey and went
to the site where we are going to improve the pedestrian crossing near
the town centre. We are continuing to roll out this program across the state.
Just on the Australind, there
are 11 separate projects that are funded, with $3 million, on top of the other projects that we are delivering in conjunction with
Main Roads across regional WA. We will continue to invest more and we
have invested more. I take this issue very seriously. I take regional road
safety very seriously, as I take road safety seriously. Again, we are investing
more than we ever have and we will continue to work with all tiers of
government to improve level crossing safety across WA.