METRONET —
FORRESTFIELD–AIRPORT LINK
18. Mr R.S. LOVE to the Minister for Transport:
I
refer to reports in The West Australian today regarding delays impacting
completion of the Forrestfield–Airport Link project, which was
supposed to be completed last year. When will this line be completed and when
will trains be up and running to Perth Airport?
Ms R.
SAFFIOTI replied:
I thank the member for Moore for
that question. Of course, we know members of the Nationals WA have been
knocking Metronet for years. Members may not be aware, but they created
stickers and they put them on their cars to make sure they criticised —
Several members interjected.
Ms R. SAFFIOTI: We are
receiving further briefings about the Forrestfield–Airport Link
project. As I said in this morning's
press conference, I will provide an update within the week. I am very proud of
the work being undertaken out there across Western Australia by workers
on infrastructure projects. They have had to build, and continued to work, through COVID-19 conditions. I am so proud
of the work that has been delivered and what has been achieved. In many
other parts of the world, tunnel projects stopped altogether; they actually
ceased all work. But as I said, we will provide an update in the next week.
Let us go through the National
Party's record on Metronet. We know its bumper stickers. I am glad to
see that the member for Moore has taken the bumper sticker off his car! Last
week, as I was going through the car park, I came across something on the
ground beneath the member for Moore's car—not that I go
searching—and there it was: the ''metrodebt'' sticker was
on the ground! He got the glad wrap and the sponge, got it on there, peeled it
off successfully and there it was on the ground underneath the car! But the
Leader of the Opposition still has got her ''metrodebt'' sticker
on. The National Party is there asking us to build it quicker, when it opposes
it. It was the Leader of the Opposition who said, on 24 March—not 24 March
2020 or 2019—a few weeks ago —
� push back some of the expenditure
they've got for some of those vanity projects or bigger projects like
Metronet �
That is what the Leader of the
Opposition, the Leader of the Nationals WA, said—to push back
expenditure on Metronet. I could say —
Several members interjected.
Ms R. SAFFIOTI: The National
Party, which created stickers to oppose Metronet, tried to create a city—and
continue to do —
Several members interjected.
The SPEAKER: Order, please,
members!
Ms R. SAFFIOTI: The National
Party is talking about the financial management of the state. We could do a whole
question time focusing on the National Party's record on the financial
management of this state!
In relation to Metronet, the
National Party, which eight weeks ago said to delay the project, delay the
expenditure, is now saying to hurry it up. It has been all over the place. The
National Party has played the city versus country divide for four years, which
got it nowhere. It went backwards.
Ms M.J. Davies interjected.
The SPEAKER: Leader of the
Opposition, you can have a supplementary, but I will ask you not to interject
with additional questions.
Ms R. SAFFIOTI: The
demonstration today is that it will continue to go backwards with its attitude
in this place.