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

The devil is in the detail of the Morrison government's offer of additional funding to duplicate North Richmond Bridge. In 2010, I stood on that bridge with opposition leader Anthony Albanese, and we committed the first money to investigate options. I'm glad I kickstarted the process and kept it going all these years. But the route that has been announced leaves many people disappointed and shocked. You will never please everyone, but community consultation on this has been an absolute joke, and it stopped last July.

Who were the winners? Not the people on Southee Road or Inalls Lane, not homes on the Richmond Lowlands, not the community around Norfolk Place in North Richmond, not people wanting to cross the Hawkesbury river in a flood—because this bridge only has a one in five flood resilience—and not people losing their homes. While the infrastructure minister and Sky's Paul Murray might think that anyone offered money for their home should just quietly agree and sign on the dotted line, no-one should be doing that without independent legal advice. I will not be bullied into submission by the minister or Paul Murray for supporting my community as they fight for a better plan and a better deal. We need to make sure we don't get landed with another Windsor Bridge, which has been a dud. They need to do it once and do it right.