- Updated
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This was published 5 months ago
Five WA road projects face funding shortfall after Commonwealth pulls pin
The West Australian government will be forced to find $316.9 million in funding for five transport projects targeted in Infrastructure Minister Catherine King’s shake-up of Commonwealth spending.
However, the WA government believes about $500 million in funding to cover recent cost escalations on road projects is nowhere to be seen in King’s independent review of its $120 billion pipeline of major works released on Thursday.
Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government Catherine King.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
The biggest hit in WA is the $200 million in Commonwealth funding promised by the former Morrison government for the $250 million Pinjarra heavy haulage deviation project in the Peel region.
The Commonwealth has also pulled $96 million in funding for the Moorine Rock to Mount Holland road upgrade in the Goldfields, and the Marble Bar road upgrade in the Pilbara.
Both roads were designed to support burgeoning mining operations in their respective areas, including the Covalent lithium mine, and had attracted tens of millions of dollars in funding from miners.
More than $14 million has also been cut from a 50/50 state and Commonwealth-funded planning document examining future road and rail connections in Perth. The fifth project to have its funding pulled is $6.9 million for minor upgrades in the Great Southern.
King’s report found road, rail and bridge works across the country had blown out by $33 billion, and she said the government’s changes would put its infrastructure program back on track.
“As part of responding to the findings of the review, the government has made necessary decisions to no longer provide funding at this time to some projects,” King said.
“This includes projects that were not realistically going to be delivered with the funding available, have made little to no progress over a significant amount of time, and projects that do not align with Commonwealth or state and territory priorities.”
While WA has lost road funding, King has agreed to fund recent cost blowouts on the Metronet projects to the tune of $1 billion, which was anticipated by the state government and already written into its May budget.
WA Transport Minister Rita Saffioti told Radio 6PR the government would build the impacted projects and was able to manage the cuts due to its strong surpluses, but she was disappointed her federal colleagues had not funded cost escalations on jointly funded projects.
She put that unfunded figure at between $500 million and $600 million.
“We hope we can get more because they’re some of the big projects like the Bunbury Outer Ring Road,” she said.
“They haven’t stepped in to fund the cost pressures, which we’re really disappointed with.
“They haven’t actually ... in a sense delivered their part of the agreement, which is the cost pressures, and that’s 50 per cent.”
Saffioti said she fought the Commonwealth during the process and was told WA had fared better than other states, but felt the state shouldn’t have had any projects cut because of their importance to the national economy.
“We don’t believe we deserve to have any of these projects cut and especially the regional projects that fuel economic growth and really help our economy keep moving, but also connectivity,” she said.
“Our highways connect WA to the east and, of course, WA’s economy is growing strongly, and we really want to continue to support that to help both the state but also the national bottom line.”
Civil Contractors Federation WA chief executive Andy Graham said all the defunded projects needed to happen.
“Main Roads doesn’t waste its time planning projects that aren’t needed,” he said.
“The Marble Bar Road upgrade in particular is desperately needed. There’s 100km of gravel road that’s a major freight route and needs constant maintenance.”
With Shane Wright
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