LABOR KICKS WESTPORT CAN DOWN THE ROAD ONCE AGAIN

The Cook Labor Government have once again shifted the timeline for when Western Australia’s new container port, Westport, will be needed, pushing it back 5-10 years to 2050 despite saying just one year ago the existing container port in Fremantle would reach capacity “by 2040”.
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After promising to prioritise the project at the 2017 election, Labor has repeatedly delayed the expected delivery date for the container port that Transport Minister Rita

Saffioti once said could be delivered by 2022.
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Minister Saffioti’s 2017 statement that it was “probably realistic” that the port would be operational between 2022 and 2027 was followed by a 2020 statement that it was needed by 2032, a 2024 statement that it would be required “by the late 2030s” or the “mid-2030s if higher volumes of trade eventuate”, and then a 2025 figure that “…Fremantle is projected to approach capacity by around 2040”.
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Now, barely a year since the 2040 figure was provided to the Opposition, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Ports Lisa O’Malley said during Budget Estimates that Fremantle’s existing container capacity is now “…expected to be reached between 2045 and 2050…”, pushing the forecast back yet again by up to 10 years.
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Shadow Transport and Ports Minister Steve Martin said that the State Government has continuously shifted its own goalposts:
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“In opposition and in government Labor has continuously spoken about this project in urgent terms while repeatedly pushing back both the indicative completion date and the forecast date the port is supposedly required to be operational to meet our container trade demand.” said Mr Martin.
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“There is now a 28-year gap between the date Rita Saffioti once said the port could be operational and the date the Government now says Fremantle could reach capacity -and that is without investment to expand Fremantle’s existing capacity.
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“Despite nearly a decade of rhetoric, the container port is still being designed and costed. Cabinet has yet to make a final investment decision, the full project is not in the State Budget and federal funding has not been secured.
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“Minister Saffioti is politically locked in to this project but since 2017 has been constantly shifting scope, revising timelines and reworking plans as the Government

quietly crabwalks back its own deadlines.
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“The Barnett Government progressed planning for an eventual Outer Harbour container port, but the Liberal Party has argued that it was not needed as urgently as Labor said it was - a position increasingly vindicated by the Cook Labor Government’s constantly shifting timelines.”

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