Rita Saffioti 10 things: WA Labor to make public transport even cheaper with single suburban flat fare

1. In case you missed it, WA Labor is going to make public transport even cheaper. If re-elected, we will bring in a single suburban flat fare. For regular users, that’s a saving of about $625 each year — and that’s on top of the savings people were already receiving under our existing two zone fare cap. 2. Surprise, surprise, the Liberals don’t support the policy and have repeatedly said we subsidise public transport too much. Expect higher fares under a Liberal-National government. 3. The Perth Wildcats are on a roll with five wins in a row. At the time of writing this, they’re preparing to take on Melbourne United. Hopefully by the time you’re reading this they’ve added another win. Either way, the commitment by Premier Roger Cook to upgrade Warwick Stadium to provide the community with better basketball facilities and a new home for the Wildcats and the Lynx is great outcome for WA basketball. 4. Another team on a roll is The Smurfs. If you’re not a regular reader of this column, The Smurfs is my daughters’ six a-side soccer team, that I’m coaching. At the end of our regular season, we’ve finished undefeated and took home the minor premiership. Now for the finals. I am nervous already. 5. Keeping our kids occupied, either in sports, arts or other activities is so important this day and age. Police and Community Youth Centres do critical work across WA, and that’s why we continue to invest in our PCYCs. A commitment of $24 million by WA Labor will ensure they continue their important work. 6. On Monday this week we got to ride the first test train on the Metronet Thornlie Cockburn Link and elevated Armadale Line. These new lines and stations look incredible and will serve the community for decades to come. The extra benefit of this new line is that it will provide those living in that corridor a new direct link to Optus stadium, ending the need to go via the city. 7. I asked this last week, and I still haven’t heard an answer. Who is going to cost the Liberal Party’s election commitments? We’ve been doing some leg work for them, and right now we’ve calculated they’ve made more than $7 billion of commitments until the end of 2027-28. We’re just over four weeks away from voting commencing. The clock is ticking. 8. By the way, ringing the Denis Denuto version of an accountancy firm to simply add up your election commitments, which is what the Liberals did last time, is not an independent costing analysis. The community deserves to know who is actually going to interrogate the cost of their commitments. 9. Investing in road infrastructure has been a key priority for WA Labor, and it’s important we keep up with our growing population. That’s why this week we announced a range of new road commitments going forward, like the new interchange at Reid Highway and Erindale Road, and widening the Kwinana freeway between Russell and Mortimer roads. 10. The redevelopment of Peel Health Campus reached an important milestone this week, with a contractor appointed for forward works. The hospital returned to public hands in August, and we’ve wasted no time getting on with delivering our commitment of upgrading this critical facility.