RICHMOND BRIDGE
People west of the Hawkesbury River have waited a really long time to see progress on a new flood-resilient bridge. Fifteen years after the Prime Minister and I stood on the now 121-year-old Richmond Bridge, people are finally seeing what the New South Wales government plan is. Now a four-lane bridge providing a higher crossing and approaches, this latest design means the government have listened to community feedback on previous concepts that originally ignored any flood resilience. Its aim is to ease congestion and make the trip across the river a bit easier for thousands of people every single day. Has Transport for NSW got a perfect plan? I don't think anyone would expect it to be perfect. While I have my own views, when I attended the online session last Wednesday, and Saturdays in-person information session, I greatly appreciated the opportunity to hear people's feedback. From querying how effective the traffic flow will be to impacts on flooding and impacts on historic properties, there are a lot of issues that Transport for NSW will need to address.
What is different, I note, to the last experience this region had of a new bridge at Windsor, is that there is engagement by Transport for NSW. I'm sure all of us who fought for years to preserve the unique and now diminished Thompson Square—where there was absolutely no engagement about the serious issues of that flawed Windsor Bridge project—appreciate the difference. It's very clear to me that the people in Southee Road in Hobartville have not had their concerns fully addressed, and they deserve to have their quality of life protected. I'll be supporting them in that objective. I joined them in requesting an additional information session on the Richmond side of the river, which is in process of being arranged, and upgrading the North Richmond intersection of Terrace Road, Bells Line of Road, and Grose Vale Road is also an essential part of this plan.
I'm obviously very mindful that the larger bridge and new design do not come within the budget allocated by the previous federal and state Liberal governments. The shortfall for this project is the consequence of poor planning by the Liberals and their back-of-the-envelope costings. Scott Morrison announced $200 million for the bridge leading into the 2019 election, vastly underestimating the cost. He was forced to double the federal contribution in 2021, and now we know that still leaves a shortfall. This is the mess left by the Liberals that we are cleaning up. Projects of this scale are funded over a number of years, and I'll be working with my government and the New South Wales government to ensure there is no delay in completing the entire project. I started this process to build a bridge, and I won't stop until this project is fully delivered.
