Trucks travelling along Leach Highway, Shelley.
Camera IconTrucks travelling along Leach Highway, Shelley. Credit: WA News

Gareth Parker: McGowan Government should take the $1.2 billion for Perth Freight Link

JERRY McGuire famously roared: “Show me the money.”

To Mark McGowan and Rita Saffioti, I say: “Take the money.”

That is, the $1.2 billion from the Commonwealth waiting to be spent on Roe 8 and 9.

If there’s one thing we’ve learned about the McGowan Government 10 months in, it’s that it can be convinced to see the error of its ways.

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Gareth Parker
Camera IconGareth Parker Credit: WA News

So, some advice: To the residents of Perth’s southern suburbs who know what it’s really like on Leach Highway — make noise. And to the Government: You’ll never get a deal like this again.

Saffioti and McGowan were jubilant after the election when they convinced Matthias Cormann to reallocate buckets of Federal cash away from the Perth Freight Link, and towards their own priority projects around the metro area.

And while Cormann fumed at Colin Barnett’s inability to bring the PFL on when he had power, he also made it clear he would revisit things if Labor changed its mind.

A $1.2 billion contingent liability was left in the Federal Budget as a signal the Government would re-stump the cash if the project came back on foot.

“The Turnbull Government will provide $1.2 billion to the first WA Government willing to build the project,” Treasurer Scott Morrison wrote to Tangney Liberal MP Ben Morton in June. “There is nothing preventing the current WA Government from accessing this funding should they choose to construct this important road link.”

State premiers usually fight like seagulls over chips for infrastructure funding, which makes it all the more remarkable that this gift is being ignored. It would certainly create jobs.

And compare the $1.2 billion on offer to Bill Shorten’s “solution” to WA’s GST woes, which is capped at $1.6 billion of top-up payments, $700 million of which is already earmarked for Labor’s Ellenbrook rail line.

Truck traffic in and around Fremantle Port.
Camera IconTruck traffic in and around Fremantle Port. Credit: Lincoln Baker

On my 6PR program last week, asked if she would change her mind about the PFL, Saffioti said a single word: “Nah.”

So to be clear, I do not think Labor is for turning. It doesn’t make it the right decision.

While Labor’s hanging its hat on a future port at Cockburn Sound, under any scenario that’s years off. In the meantime, Fremantle traffic (port and commuter) grows.

And contrary to the complaints of Freo locals, the road isn’t to nowhere; indeed it runs straight into the dual carriageway Stirling Traffic Bridge, and would open up the port city to daytrippers all over the northern and eastern suburbs.

Further, it’s a missing link in a seamless freeway network that, as of this week — after Saffioti cut the ribbon — runs all the way to the junction of the Tonkin and Reid highways in Malaga.

Dean Nalder’s PFL was costed at $1.9 billion, but works to improve access to the Murdoch Hospital and university precinct, which were part of PFL, have been retained. This would bring down the cost of a redesigned Roe 8-9.

And smartly structured — that is, by adopting Nalder’s truck-tolling model, which would recoup some industry productivity gains as a revenue stream — the State’s share could be paid back in a decade or less, with an ongoing pay day.

There might also be scope to further minimise environmental impacts on Beelier wetlands — which is less environmentally disruptive than an entirely new port dredged into Cockburn Sound.

Labor is working on a High Street upgrade between Fremantle Golf Course and the netball courts, and hiking subsidies to get more containers on rail.

But that won’t solve the dangerous stop-start of trucks on Leach Highway, which is what motorists — and truckies — hate the most.

WINNER

The majority of sensible WA local mayors, who rightly rejected the Greens’ push to #changethedate via the trojan horse of local government. Councils should stick to roads, rates and rubbish and focus on ratepayer value.

LOSER

Parents who put their kids at risk of drowning, all so they look cute in a “swimmable” mermaid tail, which Royal Life Saving Society WA found can slash swimming ability by 70 per cent.

WHISPER

There are growing murmurs in corporate circles that the Japanese company subcontracted to build the abandoned Optus Stadium footbridge in Malaysia, Toyota Tsusho, is in the throes of preparing a lawsuit.

SAY WHAT?

“The women of Labor are now leaningin … we are going to keep you accountable in these electorates.” - ALP Canning candidate Mellisa Teede. Less Sheryl Sandberg, more lobbying Bill Shorten to change tack on GST, please.