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State considers appealing order to reveal Roe 8 plans

Emma Young

Main Roads WA is considering whether to appeal a ruling compelling it to release Perth Freight Link planning documents, it confirmed on Thursday. 

The Information Commissioner on January 24 ordered the documents be revealed and the state has until February 14 to decide whether to appeal to the Supreme Court.

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'There will be a bill for Roe 8'

Police Commissioner Karl O'Callaghan says overtime police resources are being used at Roe 8.

The government being in caretaker mode did not impact on this action, a spokesman confirmed, as the order was against the Commissioner of Main Roads, not the Transport Minister Bill Marmion.

Labor powerbroker Alannah MacTiernan has spent the past two and a half years trying to have the documents, including cost-benefit assessments and traffic modelling, released under Freedom of Information legislation.

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"The Perth Freight Link arrived like a UFO in the May 2014 Budget," said Ms MacTiernan. 

"I started the process to get the discussions between state and federal government to prove it was made up on the run."

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Ms MacTiernan applied to the federal Department of Infrastructure to release the documents under FOI but said she was told it would cost about $3000.

She took this to the national Administrative Appeals Tribunal, which ruled mid-2015 that the department should not charge money to release the documents, she said.

But the department still did not release the documents, citing commercial confidence and its relationship with the WA government.

In 2016, the national tribunal again ordered the federal government to release the documents, but it appealed to the Federal Court, which has now sent the matter back to the tribunal.

Ms MacTiernan had by then launched a parallel request with the WA Information Commissioner for Main Roads to release copies of the documents from its end, after it also refused to release them. 

Last week, the Information Commissioner ruled that it was in the public interest for Main Roads WA to give up the documents.

Main Roads' appeal deadline is only days before the federal tribunal considers the matter again. 

All that has so far been publicly available of the business case is the 30-page executive summary – only Infrastructure Australia has viewed the original document. 

Infrastructure Australia, the independent statutory body that prioritises and progresses nationally significant infrastructure, noted when it prepared its assessment in 2015 that the government's benefit-cost ratio had problems.

It noted that while the Freight Link option was shortlisted, then selected, from a range of options, a "rapid benefit-cost ratio was completed for the preferred option only… not completed from additional options to determine if the preferred option provided the greatest net benefits".

It noted there were other significant options, including the expansion of the Outer Harbour at Cockburn Sound and a $100 million Leach Highway/High Street upgrade, one of the lower cost options.

It also noted that assessment for the Perth Freight Link could have been improved by having traffic and economic analyses of some of the other shortlisted options.

"Further, the assessment of options has had limited reliance on objective quantitative evidence," it said.

It noted the government's assessment of the Benefit-Cost Ratio as 2.5 to 1, but also said the assessment used to calculate this had "significant weaknesses" as it allocated 80 per cent of the weight to benefits and only 20 per cent to costs.

This meant it would "likely bias assessment against low cost options and in favour of higher cost options".

It also noted significant risks around estimated costs and also risks to benefits depending on the timing and extent of transition to the Outer Harbour.

"Major risks for the project include costs, environmental approvals and community support," it said.

"The transport modelling that underpins the economic appraisal of the project does not allow for inducement of additional traffic as a result of lower costs of travel."

The best Infrastructure Australia could conclude was that the benefit to cost ratio would at least break even. 

The RAC has also consistently called for the government to release the business case so that the voters of WA can make an informed decision.

"In 2014, when it arrived in the Federal Budget, there was a lack of information around that project," said RAC corporate affairs manager Will Golsby.

"Since then, there has been confusion around the project. It started as Northlink, the scope changed when there was a change of minister, then it became Roe 8, now there is discussion around Roe 9.

"There is a lack of information across the board to make an informed decision. Throughout the 2013 state election, and the recent federal elections, the Freight Link was never identified in our top five priorities for the state.

"There are all these different timelines around the ports. What we want to see is all the stats, all the facts, so people can make an informed decision.

"The community needs some certainty."

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