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

I rise to speak on road safety, and I do so as someone who represents an electorate whose roads are deadly. The Bells Line of Road and the Great Western Highway present challenges for residents and visitors alike, partly because of the heavy truck and vehicle usage they have as they take people to and from the Central West. In the space of a few days our region recently saw the loss of three lives on our roads, and our hearts have gone out to the families of all three. One was a gentleman in his 70s who was killed at Mount Tomah in a truck accident as he was heading out to visit family as lockdown lifted. The others were young women going to or from work.

Gemma Thompson, a science teacher, was travelling from her Blaxland home to the school she taught at, Bede Polding College in South Windsor. It was an accident involving a truck. The truck driver has been charged with dangerous driving. I didn't know Gemma, but my son did, as did one of my staff, so I've learned a little about her. Her principal, Mark Compton, echoed the devastation of the school community and described her as 'a generous, vibrant and dynamic young woman'. My son got to know Gemma and her fiance, Max, through a flatmate, and apparently Gemma, when she visited, couldn't work out how a Bede Polding breadboard had ended up in a house in the inner west. My son filled her in on the fact that Bede Polding breadboards are highly prized in our family, and Gemma was always amused when she saw that as she visited. Her loss just before her wedding is why we can never stop trying to make our roads and the people on them safer.

Another loss was Mackenzie Blake who was just 21. Mackenzie was walking home from work at Macca's in Blaxland when she was hit by a truck driven by a disqualified driver. He too has been charged with dangerous driving and several other charges. Mackenzie was Blue Mountains-born, and I knew her as Jordan's much-loved little sister at the soccer matches he and my son played. They lived around the corner and their mum, Tracy, and I would hang out on the sidelines. She, Jordan and older brother Rowan, who both went on to join the Defence Force, are devastated at her loss. Tracy says, 'Mackenzie had her heart set on working with animals, which she loved.' And she wants her to be remembered for the impact that she made on people during her short life. She was known by everyone to be kind and caring, and her loss is really felt. On the day of her funeral I joined Peter Frazer, who established the SARAH Group to champion road safety after the death of his daughter, Sarah, who was killed by a truck driver nearly 10 years ago. We stood on the side of the Great Western Highway to pay tribute to Mackenzie, along with Mayor Mark Greenhill and Councillor Brendan Christie and many dozens of others wearing yellow or bearing yellow flowers.

Peter Frazer has worked tirelessly since Sarah's death to make sure roads are built the way they should be, and every government has a responsibility to support and fund that. He also says that driver behaviour needs more focus. He wants to see road fatalities talked about not as statistics but as people, which is what I've tried to do today. I want them to be remembered. Peter feels the best way to honour those who've been killed is to stand in solidarity, put yellow ribbons on vehicles and in workplaces, get people to be road safety champions and get people to tell their stories. As he says, 'Everyone has the right to get home safely to their loved ones every single day.'

When it comes to building infrastructure so that it does save lives, we actually have an opportunity to do that in Medlow Bath in the Blue Mountains. The plan for the proposed tunnel underneath Blackheath has drivers suddenly emerging above ground to travel through the hamlet of Medlow Bath. It's beyond me why the federal and state governments refuse to consider the community's calls for the tunnel to be extended. If they were serious about protecting lives, this is a place where staying underground could really make a difference. On long weekends—particularly in cooler months, when the traffic is high—accidents, too often resulting in a tragic loss of life, are reported really regularly on this stretch. Here's where the federal government could put its words into action and support the Medlow Bath community and all those who travel through it.

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