The Barnett government's decision to not only just push ahead with the Perth Freight Link as their election loss loomed but also pick a controversial starting point was a "scorched earth policy", WA's new Labor government says.
A leaked document shows Main Roads set out two options, addressing the possibility of Labor winning the election and stopping construction on the project.
One option minimised costs and delayed clearing at the Beeliar Wetlands, but the former government opted instead to cut a path through the environmentally-sensitive area, which carried the financial risk of $50 million in sunk costs for contract cancellation.
Sunk costs for the other option, which involved starting near Fiona Stanley Hospital in Murdoch, were half that figure.
Labor had long vowed to tear up the contract if it won power and the Liberals knew polling pointed to an election wipe-out.
Labor suspended work within 24 hours of its landslide election win.
"They were being told internally that they were going to lose the election. They wilfully signed a contract even though they were told about the significant exit costs," Transport Minister Rita Saffioti said on Thursday.
"We warned the government not to. They went for the high cost, scorched earth policy."
Premier Mark McGowan said he was angered by the decision, labelling it grossly reckless and irresponsible.
"They went for the far more destructive and expensive option," he told 6PR.
"They thought they were going to lose the election so they decided to burn the house down."
Ms Saffioti said the aim was to vary the contract, rather than cancel it, and assign the companies other "shovel-ready" metropolitan transport projects in a bid to keep the workforce employed.
She said it had been done before, but acknowledged negotiations would be complex.
Varying the contract would "minimise the exit cost" but it would still amount to about $50 million, including the cost of work done so far and rehabilitating 42 hectares of cleared land, she said.
Opposition Leader Mike Nahan baulked at the plan, saying renegotiating the project undermined the tender process.
"It's not a variation of contract ... it's a totally different project and they can't even say which project," Dr Nahan told reporters.
"There's no way he (Mr McGowan) has a bevy of projects lined up with business cases, with environmental clearance, to make up for the jobs lost at the Perth Freight Link."
Earlier on Thursday, Liberal MP Dean Nalder, who was transport minister until September when he went to the back bench after a failed bid to oust Colin Barnett as party leader, admitted it was "inappropriate" to start work during the election campaign.
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