Bruce Scott (Maranoa, Deputy-Speaker) Share this | Hansard source

Before I talk about the issue of communications I would just like to say that, in listening to the former Minister for Resources and Energy, Martin Ferguson's first and last, as he said, backbench speech in the House today after question time, it was not only heartfelt but obvious that he has been, in my view, and in the view of a very large resource company which spoke to me recently, regarded highly in the resource sector. This company, which has a global reach in the energy sector, believes that he would be regarded as the best resources minister in the world.

I want to talk about a very successful program that was run under the Howard government, and that was the mobile phone black spots program which provided funding to bring mobile phone coverage where the market would not provide it. Whilst we were in government we spent some $147 million on extending mobile phone coverage through that black spots program where the market would not normally have commercially provided it.

You just cannot put a price on a life and, sadly, near Eromanga a lady passed away in a vehicle accident in the last 12 months because she was in an area where there was no mobile phone coverage, on a rural road in a remote part of my electorate. The person she had with her had to walk several kilometres to get help. She blistered her feet, so that slowed her passage to get help; she did eventually get help, but it was too late. In times of emergencies like that, the first port of call would be to communicate with a doctor to get medical help. In that case, it would have been the Royal Flying Doctor Service, but that was not able to be contacted because there was no mobile phone coverage in that area.

There are so many communities in my electorate and in many parts of rural Australia that have been left behind. Whilst we hear about the wonderful speeds that the NBN will bring to many communities in capital cities and regional towns, with high-speed internet with the rollout of optic fibre cable, these communities would like an extension of mobile phone coverage as the first step towards improving communications opportunities in their area.

Last year, I wrote to Telstra and said: would they provide mobile phone coverage in Eromanga? All they had to do was to erect a tower in Eromanga, as well as the other equipment, and they would have been able to do so. They wrote back to me and said it would not be possible or commercially viable. According to the statistics from 2011, Eromanga has a population of 400. It also has an oil refinery, right at the eastern hub of the great Cooper Basin, with oil and gas reserves. So it is a very important community, albeit small; it is a very, very important community.

There have been people from other areas in my electorate who have called my office wanting to see mobile phone coverage extended into their area. They would rather have mobile phone coverage than optic fibre cable rolled out to them because they believe that that is the next step in communications evolution in their area.

The Blackbutt Range in the South Burnett Regional Council area was brought to my attention by a Queensland ambulance officer. They have difficulty getting reports of accidents in that area or of people in need of emergency help from the Queensland Ambulance Service because of the lack of mobile phone coverage in the area. Often it can mean the difference between life and death or, in some cases, people not being able to get timely support or help.

It was also very important during the flood periods in the last three years in Queensland, because so many of the emergency calls go out through the mobile phone network. Also, in the last 12 months, there have been massive fires in the west of my electorate. One of those councils, the Paroo Shire Council, came to me and said that they are very worried about their council workers because they are often out in those remote parts of my community in those council areas without adequate communications links back to the base. Mobile phone coverage would give them that.

I just want to highlight some of those towns in my electorate. Begonia near Mitchell is one of those towns. There was Eromanga, as I have outlined. Moonie during the floods would have benefited from people being able to communicate with others and issue those emergency alerts when the floods were occurring in that part of the electorate. Also there were Jundah, Windorah, Texas and Barcaldine. Kogan was another one of those. Muttaburra recently has had mobile phone limitations in the area. All of those communities would have benefited from black spots mobile phone coverage, if only this government had addressed that issue— (Time expired)

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