Labor says $1.2b of federal cash set aside for Roe 8 should fund WA projects
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A federal budget contingency of $1.2 billion for the Roe 8 and 9 extension should go towards other West Australian infrastructure projects if Labor wins the state election next month, federal MPs and the Premier have argued.
The Morrison government has kept aside the money for any WA government willing to build the road but the state Labor government, which appears set for a second term, remains ideologically opposed.
Roe 8 is the WA road debate that just won't go away.Credit:Simon Stevens
WA Premier Mark McGowan said the Commonwealth after the 2017 state election had re-allocated Roe 8 money to other projects and the same thing should happen again if he was re-elected.
“They can put it into road projects, especially around regional WA, they can assist us with this major cultural Aboriginal tourism project, they’ve got lots of opportunities to invest in WA,” he said.
Federal Fremantle MP Josh Wilson at the Beeliar Wetlands.Credit:Peter de Kruijff
Labor’s federal Fremantle MP Josh Wilson moved a motion on Monday in Canberra calling on the Morrison government to “stop holding the people of WA to ransom for a dead and discredited project”.
“It is totally unacceptable that the Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison government continues to hold $1.2 billion in federal funding over the heads and out of reach of the people of WA for the sake of playing a silly political game,” he said.
“To continue denying the people of WA the sensible use of those funds is the very definition of senselessness and selfishness.
“In three weeks’ time we’ll be on the other side of another Western Australian state election.
“And if the people of Western Australia again reject the pointless and wasteful and harmful Roe 8 project, it will be utterly unacceptable for WA to be denied the opportunity to benefit from budgeted federal funds – $1.2 billion in federal funds.”
The state opposition has made the Roe 8 extension one of the centrepieces of its 2021 election campaign with several key seats impacted by the decision-making around the issue.
Federal Liberal Stirling MP Vince Connolly was the only member of his party to speak in regards to Mr Wilson’s motion and mostly talked up his government’s general infrastructure spend in the state and his own electorate.
“Since coming to government in 2013 this government has actually invested a figure of $15.5 billion in infrastructure in WA,” he said.
“And now in the most recent 2020-21 budget the Australian government announced $1.1 billion to infrastructure projects in WA.”
Peter de Kruijff is a journalist with WAtoday.