Roger Cook promises WA transport projects will go ahead despite ‘deeply disappointing’ infrastructure cuts

The WA Government is “deeply disappointed” by the Commonwealth stripping almost $320 million of federal funding from transport projects in the State – but it has pledged to cover the funding shortfall or seek extra cash from the mining companies that will benefit. Federal Infrastructure Minister Catherine King revealed on Thursday how she plans to reshape the Commonwealth’s $120 billion infrastructure pipeline, ending months of uncertainty after she ordered a snap review in May. The Marble Bar Road upgrade, Moorine Rock to Mt Holland Road upgrades and Pinjarra heavy haulage deviation (stages 1 and 2) will lose close to $300 million in combined Commonwealth funding. Another $6.4 million promised for the Great Southern secondary freight network and $14.5 million for a planning study for future road and rail connections in Perth is also being repurposed. But the State Government was quick to promise it would cover the shortfall. “We will make them happen,” Premier Roger Cook said. “They are important economic enablers. They’re important for our local community.” The Marble Bar Road and Moorine Rock to Mt Holland Road upgrades are being jointly delivered with Gina Rinehart’s Hancock Prospecting and Covalent Lithium. WA Transport Minister Rita Saffioti said the miners were being approached to make extra contributions, given the projects were being built to support their new operations. The Commonwealth will redirect almost $1.08 billion of funding into seven projects in WA – including an extra $1 billion for Metronet. Other projects getting top-ups are Swan River bridge, Mandurah Estuary bridge duplication, the Karratha to Tom Price corridor upgrade, the Thomas Road to Nicholson Road upgrade, other Thomas Road upgrades and the Great Northern Highway-Apple Street intersection upgrade. The review concluded it would be impossible to deliver all of the proposed projects within the allocated $120 billion budget after nearly $33 billion in cost blowouts were uncovered. The Federal Government remains committed to spending the cash on infrastructure over the next 10 years, meaning it must cancel some projects to fund others. Ms Saffioti said she was deeply disappointed by the cuts, especially given the regional road upgrades enabled key resource projects that propped up the Commonwealth’s budget bottom line. She revealed WA had offered to delay at least one of its projects to keep it on the books, but it wasn’t taken up. “Compared to other states, we’re probably not being dealt with as harshly but still, we ... wanted to keep all those projects,” she said. Ms Saffioti was asked if the Commonwealth had gone back on its word, given former leader Mark McGowan said in May – after being briefed on the 90-day review – that Prime Minister Anthony Albanese had told him there would be “very little impact” on WA projects. “As I said, we’re deeply disappointed,” she replied. The Commonwealth will also group previously separate projects into distinct transport “corridors” with an overall allocation of Federal funding. In WA these will cover Metronet, Tonkin Highway, Outback Way, Great Eastern Highway, Great Northern Highway and Mitchell Freeway. The WA Government will have to decide how and when it wants to build these with the allocated pool of federal cash. If the projects suffer blowouts, the States must negotiate with the Commonwealth for top-up funding in the usual budget process. “At the moment, (the States) come to us on an ad hoc basis, saying we’ve got a cost escalation here, we’ve got a delay with this project,” Ms King said. “We don’t want that to happen anymore. We want States to be able to manage those projects better, streamline administration, sequence those projects, and then see it as a rolling series.” Ms Saffioti was concerned the new arrangement would leave the State carrying a higher proportion of cost blow-outs. “We hope that they commit to a genuine 50:50 partnership into the future and don’t cap their commitments, which will see WA having to fund even more of the projects,” she said. The infrastructure review found the pipeline had ballooned under the former government, stacked with projects that didn’t have “merit” and were vulnerable to cost blowouts. A total of 50 planned projects worth roughly $7 billion will be axed nationwide and their funding redirected. Ms King said the review had painted a “sad” picture of the Coalition’s “economic vandalism”. “It is clear that the previous government deliberately set about announcing projects that did not have enough funding and they knew could not be delivered,” she said. WA Opposition leader Shane Love said the Commonwealth viewing regional WA projects as lacking merit showed the Cook Government had completely failed in making the needs of the State understood.