Labor’s Metronet Blowout – The most expensive project in WA’s history
- Libby Mettam MLA
- Jul 15, 2024
- 3 min read
Metronet is the most expensive project in WA history at a time when our state can least afford it.
Originally budgeted to cost roughly $3 billion, Metronet is now coming in at an overwhelming $13 billion… and the cost continues to rise. That’s more than 300% over budget!
The Yanchep Metronet line has finally been launched. Labor, Roger Cook and Rita Saffioti are doing all they can to talk up the success of this project.
What they won’t be telling Western Australians is how significantly they’ve cooked the management of the Yanchep line. Here’s some quick facts you can share with your family and friends:
The Yanchep extension was meant to cost $531.7 million… instead, it’s blown out to $1.08 billion (Over 100%)
It’s 3 years late. The project’s initial completion date was 2021.
It has cost Western Australians $75 million per kilometre of track OR $360 million per station.
This project must be the biggest failure in Western Australian history when it comes to delivery.
Meanwhile, Western Australia is suffering from record under investment in the most important areas.
Housing, health, crime and cost of living pressures continue to spiral out of WA Labor’s control.
You may have seen our advertisement in the Sunday Times this weekend calling out WA Labor’s Metronet blowouts. Make sure you share this tile with your friends and family so Western Australians are aware of how badly Roger Cook and Rita Saffioti failed our state.
Tom Price Hospital
Last week, we announced that the Tom Price Hospital will be fully funded and completed within the first term of a Mettam Liberal Government.
Western Australians deserve access to quality healthcare facilities no matter where they live.
What the residents of Tom Price are asking for isn’t a tertiary hospital, such as Fiona Stanley Hospital – they just want a facility that isn’t dilapidated or decades old.
The Tom Price Hospital is another example of Labor’s failures and wrong priorities.
WA Labor first cut the project when they were elected in 2017. Since then, they’ve re-promised it twice and haven’t turned a single shovel to get the project moving.
Despite the North West delivering much of Western Australia’s resources boom, it’s clear that locals have felt nothing of the profits – less than 0.01% of royalties generated in the Pilbara are being spent there by the Cook Labor Government.
Fast-tracking the Tom Price Hospital is a critical step in the WA Liberals’ broader commitment to addressing healthcare disparities in regional and remote Western Australia.
Ambulance Ramping
The Cook Labor Government has allowed WA ambulances to sit on the ramp for almost 270,000 hours since they were elected – that is the equivalent of more than 30 years of a patient waiting on the ramp for a hospital bed.
June 2024 was the worst year on record for ambulance ramping in WA. Despite repeated assurances from the Health Minister that things were improving, these damning statistics prove once again that Labor are completely incompetent when it comes to health.
Roger Cook said 1,000 hours of ramping was a crisis, but WA has now lived through 50 months in a row with more than 1,000 hours of ramping.
While WA Labor continues to blow billions on their pet project Metronet, our health system continues to suffer.
WA is living in an era of out-of-control ramping, exhausted and overworked healthcare professionals, unprecedented elective surgery and specialist waitlists, and unacceptable patient deaths, because of this Labor Government’s inaction.
Western Australia Nickel
We have seen the closure BP’s Kwinana oil refinery, Alcoa’s alumina refinery, and now BHP’s nickel refinery.
Despite Kwinana being in both Premier Roger Cook’s own electorate, and in the Federal Electorate of Brand – home to Minister for Resources, Madeleine King – we have seen time and time again Labor’s ignorance towards the importance of our resources sector.
These industries – especially WA’s nickel industry – are vital to the future success of WA as a hub for resources, alongside metals refining and manufacturing.
You wouldn’t think Labor know that.
As a result, thousands of dollars will flow out of our state, and thousands of hard-working Westerns Australians will be out of work, especially in the regional hub of Kalgoorlie-Boulder.
State and Federal Labor have colluded in putting another nail in the coffin of WA’s industries.