PRIME MINISTER:
Thank you. Thank you all very much and we are on Noongar country and we acknowledge their custodianship of this land for time out of mind and honour their elders past and present here today.
What a great piece of new infrastructure this is. Six kilometers - this is a $216 million project, with $173 million provided from the Commonwealth Government as part of our commitment, part of our practical commitment to make up for the unfair distribution of the GST to Western Australia.
This shows that my government, the Coalition Government, the Liberal National Party Government in Canberra recognises that Western Australia has not had a fair deal on the GST and has acted to make up for that.
Now this is part of it but most importantly, what this is going to do is for thousands of people here in Perth, it is going to save them hours and hours out of their lives in congestion and in traffic delays.
It’s going to be so important, for Christian and Ian, for your constituents in Pearce and Moore and it’s a great testament of course to the leadership that Paul Fletcher and my colleagues have shown in the Federal Government in working with the state government.
The Premier and I had a very cordial and constructive discussion last night about infrastructure and how we want to build more infrastructure in Perth, how we want to do a City Deal that will enable us to do more and build more, use more innovative approaches to financing.
We want to put more dollars to work in infrastructure here in Western Australia and right across Australia because we know that roads like this and rail like that - I actually like being interrupted by a train going past because I'm a great believer in mass transit, so that's good - it underlines the frequency of the service, it is very impressive I might say, minister. So that's good. But we are committed to this, to infrastructure.
This is a great project here. I want to congratulate all the workers and the contractors who have done the work on this, brought it in on time and under budget.
There goes another one of your very fine trains - that's good.
Well done. It's going to ensure that people have more time to spend with their families and less time caught in traffic.
It is a vital part of the infrastructure that this city needs.
It is a sign, a testament, an absolute demonstration of our commitment to putting dollars to work to build more infrastructure in Western Australia in partnership with the state government and doing so in a way that improves the liveability and the amenity of this great city. A great place to live.
We're determined to work with the people of Western Australia, with the Government of Western Australia, to ensure that it becomes an even greater place to live and work - driving economic growth, liveability and of course, all of the amenity that people expect and are entitled to expect in a great city like this.
So I'm delighted to be here. I want to congratulate everybody involved for the great work. The politicians have marshalled the money, the taxpayers have paid their taxes, but ultimately the workers have got in there and done the job and brought it in on time and under budget.
So congratulations. I'm delighted to be here with you all, it’s a wonderful project.
Thank you.
[ENDS]