I join you, Deputy Speaker Wallace, in extending my thanks to the member for Gippsland for his service to veterans.

I have spoken a lot about the impacts of COVID on my community. While that's dominating our lives in the Blue Mountains and the Hawkesbury now with the lockdown, it's no excuse for any government to walk away from the responsibilities that it has in other matters. Governments can't use COVID as a cover for their failure to fix other problems or to take short cuts. I want to talk about two major road projects in my electorate.

One is the upgrade of the Great Western Highway at Medlow Bath. Medlow Bath residents are understandably furious that their opportunity to examine the New South Wales government's plans for a four-lane highway through their village will be limited because no face-to-face consultation and discussion can be done before the deadline. As Residents Association President Debra Brown said, 'Anyone without a computer had no possibility of seeing the plans.' Under pressure, Transport for NSW has offered to send USBs or hard copy, but it's still complex design plans, a 220-page review of environmental factors and 866 pages of appendices. State MP Trish Doyle and Mayor Mark Greenhill have, with me, written to the roads and regional transport minister of New South Wales and to the federal transport minister, Barnaby Joyce, calling for an extension beyond lockdown so that face-to-face consultation can occur on this federally funded project. What the community really needs is an opportunity to sit down and discuss the detailed plan they've worked up around extending the Blackheath-Mount Victoria tunnel that stops just short of Medlow, so that this little hamlet with the historically significant Hydro Majestic is not obliterated by a four-lane road. I don't understand the haste, except that maybe someone wants to get federal money spent fast. The Medlow Bath community deserves to be listened to, and I have to say that I see the potential long-term pluses in their plan that would benefit the Upper Mountains tourism economy and the Central West.

There are fears of similar haste and disregard of genuine consultation on the Richmond Bridge project. We all know that nothing replaces face-to-face communication, and, with something as large as the project which is so important to get right, there is no excuse for using COVID to cut out community consultation. I have to say that I'm very concerned about the failure of Transport for NSW to provide me with the opportunity to ask questions about the project on behalf of my community. This is too big to politicise, and I've fought for too long for these additional bridge lanes. The New South Wales government needs to grow up and commit to a constructive dialogue, irrespective of political ties. There should be no doubt in anyone's mind that I've been focused on solutions in the Hawkesbury for a decade, before and since being in parliament, and it is petty of them to cut me out of something I have such a deep commitment to.