Transcript of doorstop

CATHERINE KING: Thanks very much. I’m Catherine King, the Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government, and it is fabulous to be here today in Perth to mark a milestone in the Albanese Labor government and the Cook Labor government’s commitment to get electric buses on to the system here in Perth. We, of course, have committed $125 million from the Albanese Labor government to investing in the charging infrastructure for Perth’s bus network. And today we are celebrating the milestone of the first contract being awarded under that funding to actually put the charging into the depots that we’ve got here today.

We know that transport accounts for about 19 per cent of emissions. If we are going to get to net zero by 2050 we need to make sure that transport plays its part. This is a real first for Australia. It’s the first time out of the transport portfolio we have invested in a large-scale project to trial and see how you can transform your public transport system.

Can I commend the public transport network here and particularly I’ve got Meredith, the parliamentary secretary with me here. I’ve been working closely with your Deputy Premier Rita Saffioti on this project all the way through. Can I commend you. This is really a first for the country to really look at how on scale we can transform a public bus network.

I’m looking forward to seeing the work that JET Charge who have won the contract to install these chargers here, I’m looking forward to their work and seeing how that actually is operationalised. But also the really important part which Meredith will, of course, talk about is investing in the manufacturing of electric buses here in Perth. They will be made here proudly in WA. They will be part of your Perth Free CAT network here in WA. And really the investment that’s coming alongside the Albanese Labor government in the charging infrastructure, the WA Cook Labor government is investing in actually purchasing the buses, one of which you can see behind me here. And I’ll hand over to Meredith.

MEREDITH HAMMAT: Thank you. Thank you, Minister King. I’m Meredith Hammat, I’m the Parliamentary Secretary to the Deputy Premier and Minister for Transport. It’s really great to be here today to celebrate the awarding of the contract to JET Charge for 18 charging dispensers here at the Elizabeth Quay bus station. These 18 chargers are a really important part of our transition to an electric bus network here in Western Australia.

The 18 chargers will be delivered by JET Charge. It’s a contract worth $1.65 million that will ensure that we’re able to move to electric CAT buses in the CBD. We’re really excited about the transition that we’re making. It is part of an overall commitment of $250 million – 50 per cent funded by the Cook Labor government, 50 per cent funded by the Albanese Labor government – that will transition our transport network from diesel buses into an electric bus network.

Now, as part of this commitment we are also very excited about the manufacturing facility in Malaga, which will see electric buses provided by Volvo in partnership with Volgren as a way of ensuring that this is not just a great announcement for the environment; it’s also a great announcement for jobs in Western Australia and investment in manufacturing in Western Australia.

We’re really excited to be here today. This is the first stage which will be rolling out early next year due for completion around the middle of next year. We’ll see the first of those 18 electric CAT buses here operating in Perth. We’re very excited to see the project develop from there and very excited to be partnering the Albanese Labor government to deliver this transformation of our bus network here in Western Australia.

SPEAKER: Is there any questions for Meredith or Minister King in relation to this one first, and then we’ll move on to other questions.

JOURNALIST: How does an electric bus work to different to a diesel bus?

CATHERINE KING: Well, it is zero emissions. And that’s the great thing. If you think about it here, if you’re a driver or your someone who’s working on buses, coming in to Elizabeth Quay here, and you can imagine a diesel bus running, the sort of emissions that would be coming out of that from a facility like this. With an electric bus there are no emissions, which is, (a) great for the environment, it’s terrific for the workforce, and it’s contributing to net zero. But it’s also – they are cheaper to run. And that is also a good thing for Western Australian taxpayers to actually have a cheaper bus system to run.

Alongside that, because the investment is also in making buses here in the west, again, it’s jobs and seeing more people involved in the making of your fantastic public transport system. But, really, that’s what it’s all about – is trying to look at how do we make sure transport plays its role in making sure we get emissions down in this country. It’s cleaner air for everybody, and I think it’s really a great win for WA that you are part of really what is the best time federally when we have invested on scale into the transformation of the public bus network.

JOURNALIST: How far can a bus travel before it needs to be recharged?

CATHERINE KING: About 300 kilometres is the – you can imagine there are big batteries in these buses. So about 300 kilometres, and the charging is done overnight. These are very, very fast chargers, so they take about three to four hours to charge a bus. But it’s 300 kilometres is where the buses can go. And obviously with your CAT network, they’re running all the time. So you really want to make sure that it has that distance and capacity, but that’s the capacity of these buses.

Do you want to ask Meredith anything about this?

SPEAKER: Anything about this one today for Meredith, or are you happy to go to other issues?

JOURNALIST: Other issues.

SPEAKER: Sure.

JOURNALIST: Minister, given the review that’s found cost overruns, what WA infrastructure projects are on the chopping block?

CATHERINE KING: Yeah, so we’re not announcing that today. And what I would like to say is that it is such a pleasure working with your Deputy Premier Rita Saffioti – I’ve known Rita for over 20 years – and the huge investment that we’ve made in partnership with the west. We’re building at the moment under construction are projects Metronet, which has just been a huge transformation for the west. We’re continuing to build that. Bunbury Outer Ring Road, again, a very substantial project that we’re working on. I travelled in on the Tonkin Highway. There are projects happening right the way across this state. The resealing of the Tanami, the western part and actually getting the Tanami right the way across the country sealed. Important projects, and all of those are continuing.

But it is fair to say when we came to government, the Infrastructure Investment Pipeline, the Commonwealth’s investment, had not been managed well at all. For over a decade it was being seen, frankly by the Liberal and National Party as something that you invest in over election commitments. And so, what we saw as part of the independent review that we commissioned earlier this year is that there were a lot of projects – 150 we started with; we’ve now got 800 projects in the pipeline. Many of those came into the pipeline in the lead-up to the 2016 and 2019 election campaigns. A lot of them were not funded properly. Some of them across the country were not done in consultation with state and territory governments. So they came as a surprise to state and territory governments that the Commonwealth was going to invest in them. And many of them are simply undeliverable.

What the review has also found, which we’ve been saying for some time now, that there are $33 billion of known cost overruns in projects that are in the pipeline today. So if we’re going to build all of them we need to find an additional $33 billion and we know that in terms of inflation and where we are at the moment that that would not be something that would be sustainable.

So what we’ve done through the review, we’re working very closely with every state and territory government to make sure that as we go forward with the review recommendations, as recommended cancellations of some projects that we’re working in lockstep with the WA government to make sure that we are building the infrastructure that is needed for the west but also ensuring that we’ve got money for those cost pressures, we’ve got money for new projects that may come into the pipeline in the years to come and that we’re investing in resilience, sustainability and productivity in infrastructure.

We’re not announcing the review today. I know there was a lot of interest in that. There was only a small number of projects that we won’t be proceeding with here in the west, but we’re still in discussions and we won’t be announcing those today. But we will be doing that shortly.

JOURNALIST: Can you talk about which ones have – are at least under discussion, and doesn’t the public have a right to know as this will obviously have an impact on the WA public?

CATHERINE KING: Yep, well, as I said, the review has – is a very lengthy and complex piece of work that the reviewers have undertaken. We’re making our way through in partnership with state governments about what projects may be cancelled, but also, more importantly, making sure we understand for those projects that are proceeding that we do the planning work, we actually understand what the costs of those projects are going to be so that we actually – when we start to build them we’ve actually got a much better picture about what is going to be required of the infrastructure investment from the Commonwealth to be able to actually deliver these projects.

And that’s really important that we do actually manage this pipeline proactively. And, as I said, for the last decade it really hasn’t been managed, and that’s why you’re seeing such significant cost overruns now.

JOURNALIST: Rita Saffioti has said that WA is in a better position because we’re not seeing the same blowouts as the eastern states. Is she right, and is it right that WA is better protected and the eastern states are more likely to be harder hit by this?

CATHERINE KING: I think it would be fair to say that in terms of the pipeline here in the west I think, you know, Rita did an amazing job being able to negotiate on behalf of the west to make sure that those projects were things that Western Australia needed. I mean, Metronet is a transformational project for this state. It is the envy of other states. It is a transformational project and it is really visionary because what it is saying is that it’s not just setting WA up and Perth and outer Perth for today; it’s actually saying you know that you’ve got population growth, you want to make sure that housing and suburbs are built around where there are good public transport links, and building those public transport links is what Metronet is all about – setting you up for the future.

I think certainly Western Australia is in a very good position in terms of the projects, but it is not immune from the needs of cost overruns as well. We are all experiencing in infrastructure projects both small and large significant labour costs, significant shortages in the supply chain, and also significant, you know, not enough money having been committed to some of these projects certainly from our predecessors in the Commonwealth in the first place so – and poor planning, to be honest, in terms of the Commonwealth’s investment in these infrastructure projects, making announcements about funding without really understanding what those costs are. That’s got to change. Australian taxpayers deserve to know we’re investing in projects that we are actually going to be able to build and that we’re not then – re-seeking and trying to get more and more and more money for the same projects. We’ve really got to be able to deliver those projects that we’ve said we will do.

JOURNALIST: Has the WA government proactively put any on the table and say, “We don’t mind if this one gets delayed?”

CATHERINE KING: These are negotiations that are happening with every state and territory government. And I’m not going to comment on all of those. But what I will say is that the relationship between the Albanese Labor government and the Western Australian government has been an incredibly productive one. As I’ve said, I’ve known Rita for over 20 years. We have frank and fearless discussions all the time about the importance – she’s passionate about transport projects over in the West, and we’ll certainly support her.

JOURNALIST: Of the $33 billion, how much is WA going to shoulder?

CATHERINE KING: I’m not going to break it down by state. It is literally project by project. There are significant cost overruns in projects right the way around the nation. And, again, you know, I’ll give an example from over south, for example – you know, there’s a railway, the Frankston to Baxter rail line. The previous government I think in two elections ago committed $225 million to build a heavy rail line from Frankston to Baxter. No state government commitment has ever been made to that project and it came as a surprise to them when that was announced. I think all of you know from the building of Metronet here, in order to build a heavy rail line, $225 million is not going to get you very far.

SPEAKER: Any last questions, guys?

JOURNALIST: Could we get Meredith on this?

SPEAKER: Yes, briefly. Yes. You have just one more question and then we’ve got to take off, guys.

JOURNALIST: So, Meredith, what projects has the State government said it would agree to delay?

MEREDITH HAMMAT: So, look, obviously there are discussions taking place and the detail of that is something that I know the Minister is working very hard on. And in terms of any other detail, that’s really a question you should direct to her office.

SPEAKER: Thanks, guys.