23 June
2006 - Western Australia’s Planning and Infrastructure
Minister, Alannah MacTiernan, has consistently
held up the progress of the Perth-Bunbury Highway.
The Western Australia Labor
Government has taken nearly 12 months to get its
documentation to the Australian Government.
The Australian Government has
had it less than two weeks.
Ms MacTiernan’s department referred the project
to my department for environmental assessment
and we have been expecting that documentation
for 12 months.
It is a matter of public record
that the State Minister did not want to commence
this project until 2009 and she will do anything
to delay it.
This latest excuse comes after
her comments to me that she desired federal funding
not to be contingent on an early start to the
project.
When the Australian Government was first considering
funding the project, Ms MacTiernan told me at
a Transport Minister’s meeting that it would not
be acceptable “for us to offer the funding contingent
on construction commencing this year as WA wouldn't
fund it until the end of the decade.”
It is little wonder that Ms
MacTiernan is having funding problems with the
massive cost blowouts on her beleaguered Mandurah
rail project.
This is a Minister who has proven
to be incompetent at managing major projects and
if Premier Carpenter does not sack her, the Bunbury
road project will go the same way as the Mandurah
rail project. / Rob Broadfield
