PREMIER ROGER COOK: Thanks very much for coming everyone, I’m joined by the Minister for Transport, the Honourable Catherine King MP, the Minister for Transport in this state the Deputy Premier, Rita Saffioti. Matt Keogh is here, the Member for Burt and a whole bevy of local members but in particular, Tony Buti, the Member for Armadale, and Hugh Jones, the Member for Darling Range. Look we're here to celebrate the next opening of the great transformational project which is METRONET. And METRONET has transformed the face of Perth. It has transformed the way people live, the way they move around, the way they access education, when they access training, the way they access jobs. And this is such an important part of this incredible public transport program, which will be a legacy of the WA Labor Government. It's made travel more affordable, it has taken cars off our roads and created 1000s of jobs during the construction phase. We know how important our expanding public transport network is, and it will be in a couple of years to support Western Australia's booming economy and growing population. Western Australia is the strongest economy in the country. It's the fastest growing population in the country. So that is why we need to continue to make sure we provide the infrastructure that Western Australians deserve, maintaining our strong economy, making sure Western Australia remains an incredibly great place to live, and that's why my government has given Western Australians living in Perth’s southeastern suburbs more travel choices with the delivery of the Byford Rail Extension and the reopening of the Armadale line, as Matt says, “at last, we can catch the train to footy once again!” It's also given more opportunities to get outside and to engage, what this does is remove huge amounts of bottlenecks in relation to level crossings. It's creating new activated areas, and it will be a boom for the development of real estate and living amenity right along this whole southeastern corridor. Today marks the delivery of every METRONET station we committed to in the 2017 state election, with the Midland train station to be completed very, very shortly. It demonstrates my government's commitment to making public transport more affordable and more accessible for all Western Australians. 

CATHERINE KING: Thanks so much Premier. What a fantastic day. It is so delightful to be here with my state colleague, Rita Saffioti. She's done an amazing job, and I do want to pay tribute to her. Matt Keogh, a federal member who cares deeply about communities here and in what has happened. But what a celebration. METRONET has been a terrific partnership between the Albanese Labor Government and the Cook Labor Government to actually not just build a rail line, to build fantastic transport services but we are building cities and suburbs. Very importantly here at Armadale, whilst we've got an amazing train station, an amazing opportunity for people to connect into the City and into other communities, we've also given the community back public space, the fact that you've got Long Park, a park underneath this railway station for people to be able to cycle, to walk, to exercise, to play with their kids. What an amazing legacy that that leaves. Making an opportunity for new people to move into this suburb, and very much be part of this suburb. Now, this project has been an enormous undertaking. The whole project, you've got obviously a brand new train station at Byford that we’re about to see, a new world class elevated station here at Armadale, removal of nine pedestrian road level crossings, providing much improved connection with public transport. It's had throughout the project, 22,000 sleepers, 40,000 tons of crushed rock, 72 kilometres of overhead wiring. It is an enormous engineering effort. Extraordinary. The construction workers of WA should be so proud of the legacy that they have left for communities of this build infrastructure. I'm really delighted that part of this project, we've also got the opening of Long Park, its newest and longest linear park, and as part of that legacy, I am announcing today, the Albanese Labor Government, in partnership with the City of Armadale, is providing a further $5 million for the Armadale Park to really finish this precinct off and ensure that that green open space is there, available for the community, but particularly, what an incredible place to be able to live and raise your kids. So housing, we expect to see more and more of that grow here through Armadale, great amenities and that $5 million alongside is being provided out of the Albanese Labor Government's urban Precincts Partnerships Program, as well as also a new project out at Canning, which is the Canning River Rail Project, which we’ll announce later today as well. But we are so delighted to have partnered with the Western Australian Government on what is, frankly a city shaping, city changing project, and so delighted that that 2017 vision of an election commitment, you can just see what an unbelievable change that that has made with the Labor Government to really invest in public transport for the future of this great city. 

RITA SAFFIOTI: Thank you Catherine and thank you for the Federal Government’s support for this incredible project. At the 2017 election, we took commitments to people of Western Australia, and one of the key commitments was METRONET rolling out the new rail lines. We've opened the airport line, Yanchep line, the Ellenbrook line and, of course, the Thornlie-Cockburn link. And this is the last rail line to open as part of that METRONET vision, the extension of the rail line of eight kilometres to Byford. The creation of the new Byford station, revitalisation of, the upgrade of the new Armadale station. And as you can look around and see the world class infrastructure that we're delivering here in Armadale. Of course, you have elevated rail. And I would say there were a lot of sceptics about elevated rail in relation to what you do to the city centre. But as you can see, it's all good. It's a huge benefit. We free up community, open space through Beckenham to Carlisle, is a seven kilometre long park which will be opening later today here in the city of Armadale. As you can see there's beautiful connectivity from one side of the tracks to the other side of the tracks, as we've just heard, great for the City of Armadale, a park here that will be entertaining and engaging for young people. $5 million from the Federal government. So you create places for people to meet and to recreate. So this is one of the benefits of elevated rail. Seven vehicle level crossings removed as part of this project, making it safer and far more connected from one side to the next. In relation to the entire project, the extension to Byford [indistinct] and we continue to work to, as I said, to finish the part here. Can I thank all of the community who waited two years, just under two years, for this project. We shut down the rail line in November 23 and we know that was a challenge for all the community, but I want to thank very, very deeply, the people of this corridor. You know what? They got on with it. They caught the buses and they got on with it, and we offered the free public transport, but they got on with it. I thank and recognise the people of this corridor who understand that with every great project, there will be disruption. And we thank you for the bottom of our hearts, people of this community. Now, of course, we also want to thank the contractors, my agency, all of the contractors through Melconnx. Thank you for all of your work. This was a big project. This was a massive project. Another part of the project, which we haven't spoken about is actually the revitalisation of the rail network between Kelmscott and Beckenham. So we've relayed the sleeve pillars, new ballast and upgraded the infrastructure throughout the area as part of that shutdown. So again, a lot of work. As I said when I grew up in the hills, Byford was a place that you went through. It wasn't a destination. Now we know Byford is a major destination for new home buyers. There's a new shopping centre precinct, and it's continuing to develop. This new infrastructure means that people along this corridor have access to world class infrastructure, 46 minutes from Byford to the city centre, a brand new world class station. Beautiful connectivity has been highlighted. This is the canvas for more housing and more economic activity in this corridor we're very proud to be completing the final roll out.

JOURNALIST: Treasurer, how are you feeling, sad that this project is now wrapping up? 

RITA SAFFIOTI: I always say this, the first couple of years was very, very tough when basically you’ve got a massive agenda. And the first two or three years in particular, getting the planning underway, negotiating the funding, then we went through COVID. It's been a tough, tough era to deliver infrastructure. No one could have foreseen some of the conflicts through both Russia, the Middle East, in particular, COVID, this was all, we were delivering, through that era. So relieved, but very sad. Because, you know, this would have been every morning I’d wake up and to see how these projects are going. Got one more left, well, actually, two in the first few months of next year, we've got the Midland station, and then [indistinct] on track with the new locally made rail cars. Sad, but also relief and very happy that we are managing to deliver this term. 

JOURNALIST: There's been those well documented cost increases and time blowouts. Is it worth it? Are you kind of banking on voters to kind of forget it in three years time?

RITA SAFFIOTI: Well, voters went to the election just a few months ago, actually just six months ago, and they voted with their feet for our infrastructure program. There's no doubt they love that we're building infrastructure, not just for today, but moving for tomorrow. And what you'll see is infrastructure, like rail lines, like roads of course, but more so starting the top of highway extension as well. We've done all of this work, all of this work for as I said, not for us. It's a community asset. Public transport is a community asset. It will outlast me, it will outlast all of us. It's for future generations, and there's a pride with the Armadale, Byford and South East community that they have received a world class train station, and as I said, they have had to deal with the shut rail line for just under two years. They've done so, and I acknowledge and appreciate their patience. But in relation to that, there's always teething issues with every rail set. I think the A series had to be taken offline for a few months, so there's always teething issues. Look, I just find it quite bizarre that somehow the Liberal Party is arguing for foreign made trains. That's what they're doing. So the question for them is, are they going to rip up the contract? If they don't believe in locally made trains are they going to rip up the contract? 

JOURNALIST: [indistinct]

RITA SAFFIOTI: The Liberal Party never believes in WA. They’re not insulting this government. They're insulting the workers and the small businesses, [indistinct] engineering, for example, a world renowned engineering firm. They're criticising, as I said, this is a criticism of the hundreds of workers, Western Australian workers, and over a dozen small businesses. That's who they're criticising. And maybe they should talk to [indistinct]. 

JOURNALIST: [indistinct]

RITA SAFFIOTI: As I said, I do look at all the supply chain interruptions. The other thing too is we did expand the scope. Because what you look at is making this for future generations. One criticism is that you build things and then they become out of date or too small. That's been the criticism of government. As you can see, this is a station that would accommodate not to [indistinct] also putting through those challenges. But again, I ask him to look at what we're delivering compared to over in the east, other states. I won’t bag them, not in front of our federal minister.

But on a value for money basis, what we are delivering is the most affordable rail system across the nation. So if you look at all the statistics, and I've got plenty to share around, if people want to look at my graphs on a cost per kilometre basis, we are delivering the most affordable. Now METRONET, the train lines, the train stations and the new car parks has cost $10. 6 billion. There’s projects over there that cost 20 billion, or actually more than that, just for one rail line. I mean, we are, we have delivered the most affordable, and all the other states. When you go and talk to them, they're asking, how can we deliver at such a good value? I'm very proud that over nine years, eight and a half years, this state has delivered the most transformational public transport project in our history and cut net debt.

JOURNALIST: What are the lessons that you take from those that you just said about time and budget that you then take into those, I guess as you start looking like a ferry network and other aspects of transport. What are the lessons that you take from here that didn't work well, that you have to fix the next time?

RITA SAFFIOTI: We learnt pretty early about integrating, like having an area of expertise to oversee projects. So that's why we created the Office of Major Transport Infrastructure Delivery. So the lesson learned was to continue to have an area of expertise that can deliver rail lines, but also hospitals and other major projects. So OMTID is all about an area of expertise that oversee design and delivery and making sure we have strong integration between design and delivery is something that we learned very early on. We've integrated it in our METRONET projects, and we're also now putting it to produce in our hospital projects, where we make sure design and delivery are very much linked, and that will help prevent [indistinct]. 

We’re seeing new housing developments every week, and we're seeing [indistinct]. As I said, growing up in Roleystone, heading to the South West, Byford was somewhere, it was a rural township that you went through now it's a major housing precinct, first home buyers, we've got the schools, we've got all the facilities. So it's a great place, and we're going to see more people moving to this corridor.

JOURNALIST: Minister, just quickly on the WWE this weekend. Do you have any numbers on how many people tuned in? And was there as much of a success?

RITA SAFFIOTI: The feedback we've had so far from the WWE organisers is that it's actually more successful than Elimination Chamber, which is quite interesting. Elimination Chamber was a bigger production. I think the fact there were three events over a period of time has meant there's more people coming, staying longer, and we've got figures like 1000s of people coming from interstate. You've seen, they're not shy in buying merchandise, and feedback from the merchandise store was, and the WWE organisers, who were watching merchandise sales, was one of the biggest merchandise sale in their history on the first day of our opening. So it's just so so so big. So our feedback has actually been more successful than even last year in relation to international visiting, so interstate international visitation, length of stay, merchandise and because of the three events. So we know WWE fans. They are passionate. They love their WWE and they go all out and really create an incredible community event. I haven't seen the city this full in a long time.

CATHERINE KING: I might let Matt just say a few words first.

MATT KEOGH: Thank you. Premier. Thanks Deputy Premier and Minister for Infrastructure and Transport. It's great to be joined here by Tony Buti, the local member for Armadale, Hugh Jones, the local member for Darling Range. The Armadale Railway Line is over 100 years old, and yet today it is brand new. My community, Kenwick, all the way down to Byford, has been tracking on this project for a long time. They've had great patience. They've adapted to other points of transport because they know just what a game changer this project is. It's going to mean that the suburbs and towns all along this railway line that really built up around those train stations and those town centres are going to be even more vibrant with the reopening of this railway line. It means school kids will be able to get to school easier. Means people will be able to get to work, to university to TAFE quicker and easier. It's going to open up better transport connectivity for our south eastern suburbs once again, and it's a great demonstration of the strong partnership that exists between the Albanese Labor Government and the Cook State Labor government here working to support our outer metropolitan suburbs getting the connectivity that they need and deserve. We recognise how important that is, and that's exactly what this project is delivering on. And we're doubling down on making sure that we're creating vibrant communities out of the work that's been delivered here through METRONET with our $5 million commitment to the Armadale Central Park just outside the Armadale Train Station. Here, myself and Tony have been working strongly with the mayor of Armadale, Ruth Butterfield, the Deputy Mayor of Armadale, John Keogh, and all the councillors, to make sure that we're able to deliver, in partnership, on a great project that will create an even more vibrant town centre, that will attract people into the town centre, and also mean when they're coming and going from the train station, they've got an attractive environment, one where kids can play, where there's playgrounds, where there's other amenity, where there's green open space, connecting this very important train connection into the centre of Armadale as well. This has been a game changing project. We've been tracking it for some time, and our entire communities are so happy.

JOURNALIST: Alan Bell says Optus should be banned from government contracts like PWC. Do you agree?

CATHERINE KING: Well, obviously, in terms of the Optus outage, there are a number of investigations that are currently underway, but be in no doubt, the Government is furious about what has happened, and rightly, the public are furious about that as well. And we are absolutely determined, the legislation was introduced into a Parliament this week that the regulatory system is strengthened so that this does not happen again. 

JOURNALIST: Will Labor support a senate inquiry?

CATHERINE KING: Well again, that would be a matter for the Minister for Communications to make that decision. But as I said, the Government furious at what has happened. It is unacceptable. We are doing, there are several inquiries underway. We have introduced legislation into the house to strengthen the regulatory system, but be in no doubt, we are absolutely furious.

JOURNALIST: How big a role will Western Australia play in the critical minerals deal with the US?

CATHERINE KING: WA is the critical minerals state, and obviously seeing reporting today that work has been underway for some time on our critical minerals strategy. We've had an abundance of [indistinct] we should be capitalising on that [indistinct]

JOURNALIST: On the Qantas hack [indistinct]

CATHERINE KING: [indistinct] and they are after our data. So it is incumbent on agencies that have this data to protect it as strongly as they possibly can. In relation to the Qantas hack, obviously, data has been released from that and obviously a number of other companies were involved overnight on the dark web. If you are concerned about that, in the first instance, you should contact Qantas. They will provide you some advice about what has been released and used and what to do to protect yourself. But also, the Government has done a lot to strengthen cyber security throughout its time of office, and will continue to do that, but we have to be constantly vigilant. These people are clever. They are persistent, and they are everywhere. And so what I would say to people who have been subject to that, I have been, my data has been subject to that as well, as a Qantas user as well, is that, be careful. Change your passwords. Watch out in the coming weeks, days for old emails that pop in. Never click on the blue links. Never, ever, ever, form any email that you don’t know anything about. If you’re really concerned, you can contact the Cyber Security website and have a look there. People need to be vigilant at the moment.

JOURNALIST: And as well, the personal records of 5 million Qantas customers [indistinct]. Is the Government going to step in and assist, and will there be any penalty for Qantas for failing to secure the information?

CATHERINE KING: Well, obviously, in terms of the cyber security investigation, I'll leave that to the relevant Minister to talk about that, but it is incredibly disappointing. I'm one of them. There are 5 million Australian customers that have had their data released on the dark web. Qantas is providing advice to people, but the best advice that we can give to people right at the moment is change your passwords, make sure you don't click on any links if you get any suspicious emails, and do all of the things you can, two factor identification on all of your systems to make sure you're as secure as possible. And in relation to Qantas, I'll leave that to them.

JOURNALIST: At the WWE event last night they sang the American national anthem first which got a booing from the crowd. I guess what are your thoughts? 

ROGER COOK: Look the order of proceedings is a question for WWE, but can I just say it's not all right. It is never all right to comment or make noises negatively about other countries.

JOURNALIST: [Indistinct]

ROGER COOK: They will have oversight of the final design details, which will probably be sort of another party as part of the of an ongoing Expression of Interest process around the final architectural designs. [indistinct] will be responsible for understanding a high level design of this, particularly if it's integrated with the Perth Concert Hall, which is undergoing a major facelift under my government. At the moment, the Aboriginal Culture Centre is an opportunity to not only celebrate culture, not only to practice culture, but to showcase culture. And it will be an amazing opportunity for both locals, visitors and Aboriginal people to immerse themselves in the most incredible, ancient culture which underpins our entire society.

JOURNALIST: It's been discovered in the hacking of the legal practice board that clients’ data was stolen, and they haven't yet released how many people have been impacted by this. What are your thoughts on that? 

ROGER COOK: Well, look, the Legal Practice Board is an independent statutory authority through the registration so they [indistinct] government, but the legal practice will I understand, has been working with the cyber security team and see what more they can do to protect both its members and its clients. It's another reminder that everyone who has personal data on behalf of the other individuals must do so in a way in which safeguards their privacy. It's so important that organisations, companies, governments all take extra steps to make sure that we protect our cybersecurity.

JOURNALIST: What kind of conversations have you had in relation to critical minerals? 

ROGER COOK: Oh, look, critical minerals remain a key focus for my government. Just about every critical mineral, which is on [indistinct] so we understand the critical and strategic role that Western Australia will play as part of the Federal Government's critical mineral strategy. We've been working very closely with Minister King on what roles we can play. I've been to Japan just recently, [indistinct] we have delegations from overseas all the time, people interested in securing global supply chains, so we understand the important role, not only regional security, but for sovereign manufacturing capability right across the country. Thank you so much.