The WA government will step in to fill a $300 million funding gap for regional road projects left by the federal government’s exit from 50 funding partnerships nationwide.
The WA government will step in to fill a $300 million funding gap for regional road projects left by the federal government’s exit from 50 funding partnerships nationwide.
The federal government took the razor to five Western Australian projects on Thursday as part of efforts to reign in a $33 billion cost blowout to the $120 billion national infrastructure pipeline.
Four of those were major road projects in regional WA: $200m for a Pinjarra heavy haulage deviation, $48m for the Moorine Rock to Mount Holland Road, $48m for the Marble Bar Road, and $6.4m for a Great Southern secondary freight network.
The fifth was a $25 million commitment to a road and rail connectivity plan in Perth.
WA Transport Minister Rita Saffioti said the state would inject funds and consult with private stakeholders to ensure the road builds went ahead.
Ms Saffioti reiterated an earlier comment that national highways should primarily be the remit of the federal government.
“They link WA to the other states, they link economic projects to the port, they actually support Aboriginal communities.
“They are big issues that the Commonwealth normally will take primary responsibility for.
“Many of those projects in the north and across the state help support the revenue that underpins not only our state budget, but the national budget.”
Ms Saffioti said the 50:50 state-federal funding split would cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars every year.
Opposition leader Shane Love said the decision showed there was a breakdown in understanding between the state and federal governments.
“To me that's a clear signal that in the future we are going to have trouble funding very necessary infrastructure spends, especially regional Western Australia,” he said.
“There are other federal programs which go into local roads, such as black spot funding and roads to recovery, and we're yet to see any commitment to that going forward from this government.
“The expectation I would have is that the federal government would support major Western Australian industries which have actually contributed to budget surpluses for them.”
Two companies in particular – Hancock Prospecting in the Pilbara and Covalent Lithium in the Mid West – would be impacted should road upgrades near their operations not go ahead.
“Those projects are public roads that both deliver benefits to the public, but also to the private sector,” Ms Saffioti said.
“One of those projects is already under contract, and early works are commencing on the other project.
“(For the) Covalent Lithium access road the approvals to develop the mine are subject to the road being upgraded, so we have to make sure we get that done.”
