Fix Kimberley's roads says Western Roads Federation

This is the hard reality and one of the main challenges Australia's regional communities and local governments face, and it will no doubt again be highlighted by the years it takes for towns in the State's remote Kimberley region to recover and rebuild from this summer's record breaking floods.

While it might be an obvious statement to make, the main priority of our political parties is to be elected or re-elected, so wherever the most votes (population) is and wherever those pesky marginal seats are is inevitably where most of their effort will be focused and Australian's hard earned taxes will go.

For those of you playing at home, a 'marginal seat' relates to a statistical historical outcome from the last election or by-election and is calculated by examining the gap between what the winning candidate received (after adding the other preferences of less-well supported candidates) over and above the 50 per cent needed to win the seat, giving us the so-called 'two-party preferred vote'.

Generally speaking, any seat with a margin of four per cent or less is classified as marginal by our electoral commissions.

While it might make sense that the majority of our government funds are spent on improving infrastructure for Australia's main population centres as this is where the most people will benefit, Western Roads Federation chief executive Cam Dumesny said it had also led to WA's North West and the Northern Territory being stuck in the nation-building stage.

This was highlighted by the recent floods caused by ex-Tropical Cyclone Ellie in the Kimberley, which isolated communities and towns in the far north due to the lack of resilient infrastructure in place and the fact there is only one major sealed road in and out of the region.

Mr Dumesny said the Kimberley floods were an opportunity for the Federal and State government to build and open up roads, rail and ports across northern Australia.

"This would open up opportunities, help combat the economic suppression of the region and create social equity," Mr Dumesny said.

However he said the models of Infrastructure Australia, an independent body which advises governments, industry and the community on where infrastructure investments and reforms are needed, were fundamentally biased against money being spent in remote regions like the Kimberley.

"You can't create business cases based on suppressed economic activity... Infrastructure Australia only wants to look at what are the current road volumes and what are the incremental improvements," Mr Dumesny said.

OTHER GREAT READS:

"But when you look at US President (Dwight) Eisenhower in the 1950s, his government co-ordinated the US interstate highway network and that added six per cent to the US gross domestic product (GDP).

"So how much can we add to Australian GDP by opening up northern Australia?"

Mr Dumesny said the funding required to open up northern Australia's freight routes was miniscule compared to the current infrastructure spend dedicated to various incremental projects on the East Coast.

"To do the Great Central/ Tanami Road projects collectively is around about $2 billion and people say that is a huge amount of money," Mr Dumesny said.

"But I come back to this - we spent nearly $18 billion to build the WestConnex freeway in Sydney - that was 33 kilometres and it was to save people's time.

"They are talking $150b to build an outer ring railway line in Melbourne and I'm not saying that's not needed, but it gives you a bit of a comparison when we are only asking about a few billion to harden our logistic chains in the Kimberley and the State's north."

A strong advocate for the creation of a nationally-integrated supply chain strategy for Australia's road, air, rail and sea networks, in the wake of the Kimberley floods, Mr Dumesny said the time was ripe.

"Communities becoming isolated each year and our freight routes being constantly disrupted shouldn't be accepted, as these types of events are occurring more and more frequently," he said.

"Our supply chains by roads, air and sea need to be strengthened, particularly in Australia's north west, and having some form of coastal shipping that is capable of responding in a flood is also important."