WESTPORT TASKFORCE —
AUTOMATED OUTER HARBOUR
571. Ms L. METTAM to the Premier:
Can the Premier confirm that the
Maritime Union of Australia, the Construction, Forestry, Maritime, Mining and
Energy Union, and the Transport Workers' Union of Australia marched on
the Labor Party's state executive last night and that the basis of
their protest was the government's ill-conceived automated outer
harbour and the fact that they are concerned that their members will lose their
jobs?
Mr M.
McGOWAN replied:
We
launched the Westport plan on Monday last week and it was very much about
making sure that we have a long-term plan to deal with freight and trade
in Western Australia. It has been a bipartisan position until recently that a new port in Kwinana would meet the
long-term needs of freight and trade—that is, container traffic. Container
traffic will continue to grow in a state that has a growing population. The
growth rate of containers has been over five per cent per annum, compound. The
Westport Taskforce put a conservative estimate on that of 3.6 per cent per
annum in growth in container trade, but the experience has been significant
growth in containers. If we were to keep Fremantle port forever, the cost of
doing so would be double that of providing a new container terminal in Kwinana.
Obviously, the better long-term solution to a difficult issue is to bite the
bullet and to ensure that our premier industrial precinct, a major industrial
precinct, has the major container port as part of it.
On top of that, there can be a significant
redevelopment at Fremantle harbour, as has happened in other harbours of this
type around the world. Indeed, last week I was in Fremantle to launch a new
brewery in the A Shed building. This new business will employ scores, if not
hundreds, of people on Victoria Quay, where I expect many more of those types
of businesses will be established. The idea is that we have a new modern
container port large enough to cope with demand in the long-term future and,
indeed, for centuries to come. At the same time, we will take traffic out of
the city through Tonkin Highway and down Anketell Road. That will get the
traffic away from the heart of the city; save money by not having to completely
upgrade Fremantle port and some of the road networks leading in there, at a cost
of somewhere around $8 billion; and set up the state for the long-term future.
That is the vision behind this. To me, it
makes a lot of sense, but change is often difficult for some people and
sometimes other agendas are involved. We are committed to ensuring we
have a good modern container port, a great many jobs in transport logistics on
the wharf and in the maritime industry, and that we set the state up for the
long-term future. Obviously, members opposite do not want to do that—they
have some other policy. But I make the point that the opposition's
position on this is different from Troy Buswell's and every Liberal
going back to Richard Court.