This is my first opportunity to speak at length in the 48th Parliament, but definitely not my first speech in this place. It is an extraordinary privilege to have be sworn in again this week for the fourth time as the member for Macquarie. I'm so grateful to the people of the Blue Mountains and Hawkesbury and to my new constituents in Nepean who have put their trust in me to be their representative for three more years, and I want to thank the many volunteers who helped make that possible.
I particularly want to thank the people of Emu Plains, Emu Heights and Leonay, which are the new parts of the Macquarie electorate following the redistribution. These people very generously had conversations with me and my team of volunteers on their doorsteps, at the railway station and along the river, sometimes in 38 degree heat. It has been a real pleasure already having conversations with you, and I look forward to more of those. It's also been terrific getting to know the community groups like the Nepean District Historical Society, Emu Plains Girl Guides and Lions Club volunteers and being involved with them in the planning for the Emu Plains Anzac Day event, which the member for Lindsay restarted a year ago, and I'm very proud to be continuing that tradition.
I am looking forward to deepening my relationship with community groups in coming years and months, as I am to working with the Penrith City Council on the various election commitments that we've made that directly involve working with them. One is Labor's $4 million commitment to upgrading Jamison Park netball facilities—not technically in my electorate but used by many of my constituents and their kids. I look forward to working with Penrith council and the netball association on that and also on major projects like the Leonay Oval. We'll be making a $2.25 million investment. One part of it will be the really exciting stuff of upgrading drainage, which is not necessarily exciting but is really essential for a field that sits at the foot of the Blue Mountains. The exciting bit will be developing the master plan. There's a real vision for that site, one that's able to be brought to life in future years. Emu Plains Little Athletics Club and Emu Plains Junior Rugby League Club have hundreds of young athletes and players who rely on this oval every week, and this investment will finally give them the sort of facility that they deserve.
We also have a $1.1 million commitment to invest in local community parks in Emu Plains and Emu Heights.
These are the things that make a big difference to you if you're a mum and you want to get out of the house for a break with the kids to really lovely facilities nearby or if you're a kid after school and you want to be able to have a play and let off steam before, of course, heading home to do all that homework. Our funding's going towards replacing deteriorated asphalt on the basketball court at Clissold Park, creating a multipurpose court, and a bunch of other things in Emu Plains like new pathways to make the park more accessible, and modernising of Ausburn Reserve in Emu Plains and Gough and Lucas Street Reserve. As I say, these feel like small things, but I've got to tell you that it's easy to remember what it was like being home with kids and just needing to get out to somewhere that provided a safe and accessible play space for children or grandchildren.
The other thing I want to mention around this new part of the electorate is that the state member for Penrith, Karen McKeown, has been an amazing support in helping me get to know this part of the world, which she has lived in for so much of her life. I think she and I have already established our meeting place as the wonderful cafe at the Penrith Regional Gallery, Cafe at Lewers. It is a perfect place to sit and make sure that at those two levels of government we're working hand in hand to support our community.
One of the things I'm really excited about as we move into this term of government is fulfilling the commitments we've made that go right across the electorate. The urgent-care clinic that is going to be opened in the Hawkesbury will be a real game changer for families there, and I'm grateful for the huge support I've had from the community in making sure we were one of those nominated to get a new urgent care clinic. There is already an urgent-care clinic operating in Penrith, and one of the delights of doorknocking through the campaign was being able to raise people's awareness about that—something that perhaps the member for Lindsay had not been as excited about as I am, but it is proving to be, in Penrith, a really useful service, particularly for kids with sporting injuries and for older people who know that they really should get a fall looked at or a cut dealt with quickly, not to mention run-of-the-mill things; all of us will do something silly at some point or find ourselves in need of urgent but not critical care. I'm delighted to see that lower mountains people are using that service, as well as those in the Emu Plains region. But the Hawkesbury deserve one, and that is something I will continue to work on, and I have already had conversations about getting that underway.
Aside from the fantastic commitments we've made around women's health and the changes that are already in place and that this Labor government believes very strongly in, the new endometriosis and pelvic pain and menopause clinic that is slated for the Nepean and Blue Mountains area is a game changer. I acknowledge the work of the assistant minister, who's sitting at the desk and who put so much effort into making sure women's health has been a key focus of Labor's first-term agenda as well as our second. There has already been a discussion for an expression of interest as to who might want to operate the service, looking for health organisations that already do this or have the capacity to do this. We will then build on their capacity to provide a service across that whole Blue Mountains and Nepean region. So, that's another one I'll be keeping a very close eye on.
I'm very proud to represent the Blue Mountains and the Blue Mountains World Heritage Area. Much of the Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area sits within my electorate. That's why koalas are a really key election commitment for me. We have committed to creating a stronghold for koalas—a place of refuge for koalas as climate changes. Our $3.495 million—let's just call it $4 million—election commitment will address the knowledge gaps and coordinate the management of areas in this Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area. That involves multiple councils, multiple other state organisations as well as the federal government so that we can offer refuge to koalas. The work of Science for Wildlife showed us, in the years following the shocking 2019-20 Gospers Mountain fires—part of that Black Summer fire season—that koalas have found refuge in the Blue Mountains. It becomes even more important, as climate changes, that we conserve these spaces and make sure they are well supported.
The commitment over the next few years will involve collecting and reviewing data across diverse sites, including looking at the connectivity of those sites, the disease that might be present in koalas and the genetic diversity. I'm proud to say that we have already living in this area the most genetically diverse koalas, and they deserve to be protected, which is why another part of it is a responsible pet ownership program to address the risk of predators, many of which are our beloved pets. This holistic program has many elements, and I look forward to talking about it in more detail. I am very much looking forward to the work that we do with people like Science for Wildlife and the different agencies that support the Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage area, including the Blue Mountains World Heritage Institute.
We are very focused on the commitments that we've made this election. One that has been a long-running and ongoing commitment from Labor to my community has been duplicating the North Richmond bridge. The commitment around this started back in 2010, my very first election, where I was unsuccessful, when the now prime minister stepped in with a federal commitment to kickstart this process. It has moved slowly through some periods—quickly when we were in government, more slowly when we were not—and I'm pleased to say it is moving now with pace. At this election we committed an additional $114 million, on top of our $400 million commitment, to ensure this project gets done, and gets done properly. There is a long way to go, but we're looking at the work on this project starting next year. There are some preliminary early-stage works that will, in fact, be starting within a matter of days, but the bulk of the project will get started next year, and that is thanks to the additional Labor commitment of funding to make sure that it's done once and it's done right.
When I think about roads in my community, they have been a key focus of what we've delivered already in our first term, and we'll continue to deliver. On the back of terrible bushfires and floods, there's been tens of millions of dollars of investment of federal funding to ensure that roads can be repaired and, more importantly, built back better, and that is something we saw in the last term of government. But we also have an additional $100 million coming into one of our key roads, the Bells Line of Road. This wasn't an election commitment; this was announced by us in government, and the state government is now working through where those sites will be. It's a road that spans two local government areas: the Blue Mountains and the Hawkesbury. It's a key thoroughfare for people coming from the Central West and from Lithgow through to the city as an alternative to the Great Western Highway, which, in itself, is going to be the focus of a lot of our attention, with the state government, in this term of government. The Bells Line of Road now has $100 million of investment that we will soon start to see the detail on.
I'm very proud to be delivering those sorts of things. Commitments don't always come when there's an election. Sometimes they come because there's a job that really has to be done. There are still some commitments that I made in 2022 that have not quite managed to be brought to fruition by the parties who received the funding for. This term I'm very much looking forward to seeing Hawkesbury City Council deliver on $2.5 million worth of improvements to North Richmond Community Centre, upgrading it so it is more suitable as an emergency and evacuation spot. These projects often end up being complex, and I appreciate that council has been working on them as best they could, but it is very clear to me that the delivery of these projects is urgent in this term of government and I will continue to work closely with council on that, as well as on the rollout of additional mobile services. Obviously, this involves working with the telecommunications companies, and sometimes it gets complicated when councils get involved. One of our new mobile towers, at Hawkesbury Heights, has been switched on and one at Mount Tomah—again, on that really key Bells Line of Road—is not far off.
Those are the things that we keep working on. We try to work collaboratively. I find that, rather than just attacking them for not having got projects done and dusted, it is much more productive to work in collaboration. I'm definitely looking forward to them finalising the work—it's not a huge amount of money—on two small parks in Bounty Reserve in Bligh Park and in South Windsor. That's another Hawkesbury City Council project. They're also spending some of the $3 million we committed last election to Woodbury oval in Glossodia. On the Blue Mountains side, Mount Victoria's investment of a million dollars into their central park is coming along nicely. It's been sometimes frustrating for the community not to see an instant fix from those things, but working with several tiers of government can complicate things.
Two groups who have been beautifully delivering the 2022 commitment have been the Rural Fire Service and the SES. Again, it wasn't necessarily as quick as we would have liked, but I am now seeing $50,000 of expenditure in every single rural fire brigade in my electorate across the Blue Mountains and Hawkesbury. These things are really creative. Some are choosing water tanks to increase their water supply. Others are putting in vermin proof lockers, because you do not want stuff eating your uniforms. There is a range of innovation happening that is designed to serve the volunteers and the community they serve. I'm very proud to be seeing this. I look forward to visiting every one of those RFS sheds and seeing the work they've done. In 2022 we also announced investments in the headquarters of each, and that is also underway. With $1.1 million for each SES, they are very close to starting those projects. These sorts of commitments are just a sample of the things that we've done in Macquarie, and there is always more to do. The Veterans' and Families' Hub that the government has established is underway. The temporary site is close to opening, and a permanent site is already selected. What it shows me is that federal government doesn't do things on its own. We need to work with other groups.
In the last few minutes I have, I want to turn to an issue that will be a focus for me in this term. It goes to what the Governor-General spoke about when she spoke about caring for others in our community. There is a group of people who are facing increasing distress, and that's homeowners who can't afford to insure their home—likely their biggest asset—because they're in a flood prone area. This is happening across Hawkesbury-Nepean as well as in many other parts of the country. We've experienced eight floods since 2020. While none of them reached more than a one-in-20-years level, they were devastating for people. We've seen the sense of security that people had fall away. In the last week or so, I spoke with one resident who was quoted up to $85,000 a year to insure their home in a suburban area. Yes, it's on a flood plain. The average quote they had was $25,000, and this is a number I hear frequently. It is equally out of reach to the average person. Their insurance broker said there was nothing that could be done. At the same time as I reached out to the insurance industry to try and find a solution, this person was able to secure insurance where they opted out of flood insurance. They're covered for all the other perils and accidents that can occur but not for flood. For this family, that was an acceptable outcome, but there is not always a satisfactory ending in these situations. One recent home-seller had to pay $25,000 insurance on the property to secure the sale with the future buyer.
The Hawkesbury-Nepean was lucky in these last few weather events that some parts of the country faced. There was low-level flooding. But there is urgency to ensure that people can take responsibility for their own recovery by being able to access insurance in some form. We're not the only country facing this issue, and I've been grateful to the Insurance Council of Australia for giving me access to people in the United States, the UK and New Zealand to hear of the very similar challenges they're facing. We all know that mitigation is crucial in this insurance affordability issue, and our government has done more on mitigation than has ever previously been done. But exactly what to do, how to do it at a local level and what difference it makes is not yet completely clear. Obviously, responsibility for so much of the mitigation sits with the New South Wales government. As I say, this is a place where we need collaboration and cooperation. For me, one of the most urgent challenges this term is to work with the Assistant Treasurer, the emergency ministers, the New South Wales government, the insurance industry and my community to find a way forward on this very complex issue. No-one is suggesting there is a quick fix, but what is clear is that the urgency continues to mount and that, where we can't find a solution, we're creating huge distress for communities who see a place they felt secure in become a real ball and chain—a place they can't exit, a place they can't afford to leave but also where they can't afford to stay.
These are some of the many joys and challenges I look forward to in this term of parliament, and I look forward to working with colleagues across the chamber on these issues.
