Nationals WA leader Shane Love says the Pilbara is not getting its “fair share”

Nationals WA leader Shane Love says the Pilbara is not getting “the fair share it deserves”, calling for attention to key issues including housing, child care and infrastructure after a recent visit to the region. Mr Love said a lack of housing and accessible child care were the most frequently raised concerns by locals during his Pilbara tour. “Everybody knows the housing situation is critical in the Pilbara,” he said. “The other big issue we’ve heard about is child care, especially around Port Hedland where multiple organisations and residents told us it’s incredibly difficult to access. “One of the main challenges is finding enough childcare workers. It’s hard to run a centre without adequate staff, and the high cost of living in the region doesn’t help.” Mr Love welcomed progress on the Mulataga development in Karratha, which recently involved a land release, but said more needed to be done to ease the region’s housing crisis. “We’re just not seeing the State Government and DevelopmentWA coming to the party and actually getting in and providing the land, and if you haven’t got the land, you’re not going to have the housing,” he said. “Why on earth we’ve had this stasis for so long is beyond me. It’s been obvious that for many years now, that housing is short in the Pilbara. “We really want to see a community in the Pilbara grow into something comparable to Townsville or Cairns, with the services and infrastructure.” Planning and Lands Minister John Carey said the latest State Budget included $43.2 million for the Mulataga estate in Karratha to unlock 169 residential lots, in partnership with the City of Karratha and the Commonwealth. “Land is available for sale in all Pilbara markets through DevelopmentWA,” he said. “We made housing initiatives like introducing stamp duty exemptions and concessions our top priority when Parliament resumed this year. “Those changes were more generous for regional WA and meant first-homebuyers in the Pilbara will save on stamp duty for homes valued up to $750,000. “This complements a suite of measures through Keystart, also introduced by this Government, including low-deposit modular loans, as part of the latest State Budget.” Joining Mr Love on the visit was shadow minister for Road Safety Julie Freeman, who recently established her office in Karratha. Ms Freeman said road safety and infrastructure were among the biggest concerns raised by locals. “There is concern around road safety and the infrastructure on Pilbara roads, like the rumble strips and the extra widening,” she said. When asked about North West Coastal Highway, particularly the stretch between Karratha and Roebourne where fatal road accidents occurred earlier this year, Ms Freeman said improving driver behaviour was critical. “There needs to be a real focus from a road safety point of view on driver behaviour and people being a bit more patient on the roads,” she said. “The trouble is, when you’ve got that big mix of vehicles and you’ve got them travelling at different speeds, that’s when people get frustrated and they take the risk and do something dangerous, and it can end really badly. “The way that we make people change their behaviour, is around visibility of our police on the roads.”

Nationals WA leader Shane Love says the Pilbara is not getting its “fair share”

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