- Federal Government announces it is withdrawing more than $300 million from WA projects
- State Government affirms its commitment to seeing those projects delivered
The Federal Government has today announced it is withdrawing more than $300 million from Western Australian transport projects following a review into the nation's infrastructure pipeline.
Projects where funding has been withdrawn by the Federal Government include:
- $200 million from the Pinjarra Heavy Haulage Deviation
- $48 million from the Marble Bar Road Upgrade
- $48 million from the Moorine Rock to Mt Holland Road Upgrades
- $6.4 million from the Great Southern Secondary Freight Network
The State Government today announced it remained committed to all projects despite the withdrawal of funding by the Federal Government.
Several of the impacted projects involved an innovative cost share model between the State and Federal Governments and private sector. These road projects were helping to unlock key resource projects, and the withdrawal of funding may impact their delivery timelines.
The State Government will work with key proponents over the coming months to assess funding and delivery options for these projects.
As stated by Transport Minister Rita Saffioti:
"We are naturally disappointed with the outcomes of this review.
"We're not immune from cost pressures - but the escalations being experienced here are significantly less than projects on the East Coast.
"We don't have projects worth tens of billions of dollars like Inland Rail - which is now estimated to cost more than $30 billion, or the suburban rail loop in Melbourne - which is now expected to cost well in excess of $100 billion - even the North-South Road Corridor in Adelaide is now costing well over $16 billion.
"Our position has always been that we did not want to see any projects cut, and that our preference was to work cooperatively on smoothing the pipeline of projects, rather than cutting support entirely.
"We remain committed to these projects, and will now engage with key proponents to look at funding and delivery options."
