Roger Cook promises Marble Bar Road upgrade will go ahead despite ‘unfair’ Federal infrastructure cuts

WA Premier Roger Cook has promised upgrades to Marble Bar Road will go ahead, despite a $48 million cut to funding as a result of the Commonwealth reshaping its $120 billion infrastructure pipeline. The Marble Bar Road project, which seeks to upgrade a 100km stretch of gravel road to meet major freight needs, has been announced as one of five major WA projects to have Federal funding stripped as a result of the review. The WA Government is “deeply disappointed” at the cuts but has already promised to cover the shortfall to ensure the projects proceed as planned. “We will make them happen,” Premier Roger Cook said. WA Transport Minister Rita Saffioti on Thursday morning revealed the State Government had offered to delay at least one of its projects in order to retain the Federal cash. She said the regional road upgrades enabled key resource projects that propped up the Commonwealth’s budget bottom line. “That’s why we’re deeply disappointed,” she told ABC radio. “We don’t believe that these projects needed to be cut, particularly because of the economic value they bring to the State and the Commonwealth. “I think we’ve been not fairly treated.” In a statement following the announcements, Civil Contractors Federation WA chief executive Andy Graham said all projects which had funding cuts “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. “Unfortunately, the original allocated funding of $120 million was less than half of what’s needed to deliver it, but the State Government is already working with resources sector proponents on trying to make it viable.” The Marble Bar Road upgrade was being jointly delivered with mining companies, which were expected to be approached to make extra contributions, given it would be built to support new sector developments. Ms King said that the review — published in part on Thursday — had painted a “sad” picture of the state of the infrastructure pipeline the Federal Government inherited from the former Coalition government. “It is clear that the previous government deliberately set about announcing projects that did not have enough funding and they knew could not be delivered,” she said. “It can only be described as economic vandalism.” The announcement comes as Mr Cook doubled down on the State Government’s criticism of the Federal Government’s new approach to funding future infrastructure projects, which will ask the States to split costs 50:50 with the Commonwealth. Regional road upgrades have typically relied on an 80 per cent contribution from the Commonwealth. “The 50:50 decision will definitely impact us,” he said. A total of 50 planned projects worth roughly $7b will be axed nationwide, about 30 fewer than had been recommended in the review.