INFRASTRUCTURE AUSTRALIA PROJECTS — BINDOON BYPASS
352. Mr R.S. LOVE to the Minister for Transport:
I
have a supplementary question. I refer the minister to the question that I asked
and the fact that Main Roads officials have publicly announced that the
Bindoon bypass has been delayed for two years. I ask again: can she confirm
that that is the case; and, if so, why has she singled out that project when it
has the highest cost–benefit ratio of any on the Infrastructure
Australia priority list?
Ms R.
SAFFIOTI replied:
We have not made any final decisions
on this. As I said, we had a skills summit on Friday.
Mr R.S. Love: Main Roads is
saying that you have.
Ms R. SAFFIOTI: And I am saying that we have not. As I
recall, as the Minister for Transport, we are the ultimate decision-makers.
As the Premier just outlined, we are
spending a record amount in regional WA—hundreds and millions of
dollars on regional road safety packages and key road projects around Western Australia.
We are very proud of the amount of money we are spending in regional Western Australia.
It is unprecedented. It was the member for Moore's former leader who
said that roads should not be a priority for royalties for regions spending. It
was a disgrace that they did not believe that royalties for regions —
Mr R.S. Love interjected.
Ms
R. SAFFIOTI: It was a disgrace
that they did not believe that royalties for regions should be spent on roads.
We are out there upgrading South Western Highway and building the Albany
ring-road and Bunbury Outer Ring Road. We are doing work throughout the
Kimberley and Pilbara and around the goldfields. Everywhere we go, there is
record regional spending. We want to work with industry to make sure that we
can continue to deliver that benefit not
just today or next year, but for years to come, and that is what we will do. It
makes good sense for the community and for the economy, and it also
means that financially everyone gets to benefit for a longer period of time. Of
course our priority, as the member has seen, is record regional road safety
spending.