LEVEL CROSSINGS — REGIONS
658. Ms M.J. DAVIES to the Minister for Transport:
I have a supplementary question. Can
I just confirm that as a result of the funding that was confirmed in last night's
budget, there will be no additional state government funding to match those
funds to roll out this program across regional WA?
Ms R.
SAFFIOTI replied:
No,
the Leader of the Opposition cannot confirm that at all. Let me make a point
about last night's budget. Some of the funding in last night's
budget was announced in May but the previous federal coalition never
appropriated any of the funding. One of our key projects as part of this budget
round was that even though the previous federal government made some
announcements, only this federal Labor government appropriated the funds. Many
of us were unaware that of all the announcements made by the previous federal
Liberal coalition government, none of it was appropriated. That is why it was
important to secure this funding as part of last night's budget, and I am
happy to have secured that funding. We will work with the federal government.
As I said, we will go through all the information from the federal budget. We
are doing that now and we will continue to make investment decisions. This
state Labor government is investing a record amount in regional road spending,
in regional road safety and in regional level crossing safety.