Opinion: Opposition Leader Shane Love says road and rail investment desperately needed in Mid West

The Mid West is a powerhouse. From its rich farming landscapes to its expanding resources sector and growing renewables industry — the region is on the precipice of significant growth and change that will benefit many generations to come. Last financial year, Geraldton Port exported more than 17 million tonnes of commodities out of the Mid West. According to the Port of Geraldton Master Plan, this figure is expected to increase three-fold, to up to 50 million tonnes per annum in the next 15 years as new projects emerge across the region. The journey to growing these industries will not be an easy one and it will take a unified and co-ordinated approach to ensure these transport networks — our economic corridors — are prepared to deal with the increase in heavy haulage. However, it is evident that we are facing a huge roadblock. Since Labor came into power in 2017, we have seen no plan and no investment in the Mid West road and rail network. The evidence of this neglect can already be seen far and wide with communities left to navigate the thousands of road trains along damaged and mangled roads. I recently spoke with a group of Mullewa residents at the end of their tether. They are grateful for the economic and social injection that the truckies bring to their small town, but they are concerned for their safety with one woman commenting “it is only a matter of time before someone doesn’t make it home”. Currently, there are 170 60-metre road train movements per day along the Geraldton-Mt Magnet Road, with that number set to increase to 500 movements per day. These massive road trains, commonly known as quads, are illegal on most WA roads. Generally, you will only see a maximum of three trailers (36.5 m). When these quads are full, they’re hard to control. If you’ve ever sat behind one, you may have witnessed the terrifying moment as 140 tonnes of iron ore snakes from left to right over double white lines and around blind corners. The weight and high frequency of the road trains has decorated the bitumen with cavernous potholes, carved deep wheel ruts into sections, and eroded the edges — leaving road users to face a perilous and unpredictable journey. It really is a disaster waiting to happen, and given there is a perfectly good railway line running adjacent to the Mullewa to Geraldton section of the road, the situation is unacceptable. So why isn’t the State Government prioritising putting the commodities on rail? Do they not value the lives of the regional people who use these roads? Further down the road, the Transport Minister recently signed off on a massive increase in heavy-vehicle traffic, which will see around 45 trucking movements per day passing through Perenjori, Morawa and Mingenew, delivering iron ore to the Geraldton Port. The Minister originally claimed this would be a “temporary arrangement” while negotiations were made to move the ore by rail and would only be in place until March 31. However, the Minister has refused to confirm whether this temporary arrangement will in fact conclude at the end of March, with all signs pointing towards it not only remaining in place, but ramping up with even more truck movements. The Mingenew-Morawa Road has now become so rough that St John Ambulance volunteers must slow down to just 40km/h to manage patients along that road, and patients with spinal injuries must now be transported by the Royal Flying Doctor Service. This State Labor Government is choosing to ignore the extremely accelerated rate of damage to these Mid West roads and as a result they are endangering the lives of innocent people. What will it take for them to act? Road safety in the Mid West is already a significant concern. From 2018 to 2022 there were 1864 reported crashes on its roads, including 46 fatalities and 289 serious injuries. This equates to 105 people killed or seriously injured per 100,000 people, making the Mid West one of WA’s worst regions for road safety by population. What we desperately need is an informed and considered plan for investment in our rail infrastructure, maintenance and upgrades to the regional road network, and for business and Government to co-operate to find a solution. It’s time this Labor Government recognises the role our Mid West communities play in contributing to the wealth of our State, and it is only right that community safety is prioritised. Shane Love is Opposition Leader and shadow transport minister