THE wife of Perth man Paul Weeks, who was on-board missing flight MH370, is pleading for the WA and Federal governments to abandon a “distasteful” plan to build a memorial in Perth to the lost passengers.

Danica Weeks said she was told by email on December 22 — the day of Paul’s 42nd birthday — about the decision to install the national monument on the banks of the Swan River at Elizabeth Quay.

“It’s totally distasteful to even think about a memorial when the plane hasn’t been found. I requested that they please don’t do it, especially just before Christmas,” she said.

“Do we need more reminders that our loved ones are missing, especially at a time when it hurts us the most? Clearly they didn’t listen to that plea and they went ahead and did it. I’m totally angered by it. To me, it’s like a slap in the face really.”

Ms Weeks received the email, sent by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB), the day after a tender for the memorial’s design was published by the Department of Premier and Cabinet in WA.

Camera Icon Paul Weeks who was onboard MH370.

The mother-of-two said there was no consultation with families of the missing.

A spokesman for Premier Mark McGowan said the WA Government understood the sensitivities and “expected consultation with families of those missing to be very thorough”.

“We will be following up on these concerns with the Federal Government,” he said.

The proposal was first flagged by former prime minister Tony Abbott, six months after MH370 vanished with 227 passengers and 12 crew.

Ms Weeks said the plan sent a message to relatives of the missing that their loved ones were “collateral damage” and that authorities “want to move on from MH370”.

She said: “It’s like they are saying, ‘We are doing you a memorial, here you go. Move on.’

“I wrote to them and said ‘what am I supposed to tell my kids now? The boys are old enough to hear about and ask if they have found dad and whether this is where he is now?’

“This should only happen when the plane has been found and we know exactly where it is. This doesn’t give us any sense of peace whatsoever.”

Ms Weeks was living with the couple’s two young sons in Perth when Paul boarded the Malaysia Airlines jet. The Boeing 777 aircraft disappeared shortly after taking off from the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur, bound for Beijing, on March 8, 2014.

The search for the jet, in an area 2500km from Perth in the southern Indian Ocean, was suspended last January. US group Ocean Infinity was due to begin a new search next month.

Ms Weeks, who has since moved to Queensland, said a monument to the search teams would be appropriate, given it was co-ordinated from Perth; “but not for the plane”.

“We don’t even know if it’s there (in the Indian Ocean). Yes, we’ve been told that since they started looking, but it has been four years and they haven’t found it,” she said.

“I’m starting to believe, like the Chinese, that it’s not there. Until we know exactly where it is, let’s hold off on spending money on a memorial. They are putting the cart before the horse.”

Attempts to contact the ATSB were unsuccessful.