Susan Templeman (Macquarie, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My electorate of Macquarie lies 80 kilometres from Bondi Beach, but we have our own beach. In fact it is a really lovely stretch of beach, but it is under threat thanks to an appalling plan to build a bridge across the Grose River, which flows into the Hawkesbury River near Yarramundi.

Do not get me wrong. I want a third bridge to cross the mighty Hawkesbury River. I was at the Hawkesbury Show at the weekend giving out 'I'm for a third crossing' bumper stickers. But have no doubt, this two-lane bridge is not the third crossing. Instead, this proposal is a way for a developer to allocate a $24 million contribution related to the construction of a massive housing development on the western side of the Hawkesbury River that will create additional traffic congestion in an already congested local road network. The plan plonks an ugly concrete structure through the Navua and Yarramundi reserves. This is a place where the sand is golden, there are flats that children can wade in, and other spots where the water runs deep. It is beautiful and one of the few places people from Hawkesbury and lower Blue Mountains can escape the heat in the middle of summer. And this bridge will not actually solve the traffic problem—there is a little two-lane bridge that you need to travel down narrow country lanes to access, and once on the other side you have to cross a second bridge, which is well-known to flood with a few drops of rain. I will not even waste my breath talking in detail about the roads that lead from that point, suffice to say that they are all single carriageway and not designed to be major thoroughfares.

The biggest tragedy would be if the New South Wales government decides as part of its much-vaunted local infrastructure push to throw in some millions to make this Navua bridge a reality rather than treating the people of the Hawkesbury with the decency they deserve. The real spending that we need to see out of the New South Wales government in its next budget—spending that the Treasurer, who is meant to be the member for Hawkesbury, should be backing—and spending we did not see from this federal government in its budget is for a local road study that would set out a sensible plan for road and bridge improvements that do not destroy what we already have, whether it is natural heritage or colonial heritage. Of course, when I talk about colonial heritage I am referring to Thompson Square, which the state government's Windsor Bridge replacement project is set to destroy unless we can stop it, and the community certainly wants to see it stopped.

We urgently need to determine where a real third crossing of the Hawkesbury River would work best for the people who live in the area, who have, justifiably, run out of patience with the way Liberal governments have treated their infrastructure needs year after year.