Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

Problems with mobile coverage was the predominant issue raised with the Regional Telecommunications Independent Review Committee in 2011-12, not that long ago. The issue was raised at every public hearing and in two-thirds of submissions. I just love some of the comments that came from that, and I just love the way country people speak. Jim Barwick, who lives near Warialda, where Mark Coulton, the member for Parkes, comes from, said this:

For crying out loud, surely we have a right to be able to make a bloody mobile phone call without having to climb a tree or sit on a silo!

And he is right. There are farmers in my electorate who stand on top of their International tractors. My father used to have an International tractor, and they are huge red things. They are iconic in Australian rural settings. I can just picture Dad, if he were still alive, standing on top of his tractor making a phone call and saying, 'Yeah, I'll get that price for wheat.' It is just ridiculous to think that they have to stand on top of the engine of a tractor to get mobile coverage, and for poor old Jim near Warialda, he has got to make his calls from in a tree or on top of a silo. We had another comment:

… businesses are unable to capitalise on advances in technology to improve productivity—for example, agricultural applications that use mobile technology to record and process data in the field.

Mobile coverage is so important in rural areas, but it is not happening. Now, with wheat being deregulated, farmers need to have access to mobile phone coverage.

One of the most important aspects of mobile phone coverage is safety. We are a nation of fires, floods and natural disasters—not because of climate change, but because that is just how Australia is. It is a country of contrasts. It has been since time began and it will continue to be. It is just the way this wonderful brown land operates. There were fires up in Tumbarumba in late 2009 and several floods in 2010; floods in February in Ganmain last year and in fact floods in all parts of my electorate in March last year; and there were fires again particularly throughout the east of my electorate and also in Narrandera in January this year—fires that made the national news. Many of those poor people affected by those floods and those devastating fires were not able to make emergency phone calls on their mobile phone because there was no coverage. There has never been any coverage, so, when the landlines go down due to natural disaster, what happens? How in the hell do these poor people know in advance that there is going to be an emergency, and how can they make a call to get themselves help, to get themselves that emergency assistance which they so desperately require? Certainly, if we are elected in September this year, and may the good Lord let that happen, I will certainly be lobbying for better mobile coverage, as I have with ministers.

Ms Saffin interjecting—

I can see the member for Page laughing. This is a serious subject.

Ms Saffin interjecting—

I know you are serious about mobile phone coverage in your electorate, because I know your electorate well, and I know that you have also got problems with mobile phone coverage.

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