Andrew Hastie (Canning, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

It is always bracing on a Monday morning to hear from the member for Bendigo, particularly when she gives us tales of pork-barrelling and lemons and accusations that this government has done nothing with regard to telecommunications. It is rather ironic, because six years of Labor government saw no delivery of more telecommunications infrastructure, whereas this government has committed $220 million over three funding rounds to the Mobile Black Spot Program, which will provide new or upgraded coverage to more than 3,000 black spots in regional and remote areas.

This is very important to my electorate of Canning, which fits into the category of a regional electorate. It is important to note that the WA Department of Planning predicts that Perth and Peel—the Peel region sits within Canning—will reach a population of 3.5 million by 2050. The top of the Peel region—the top of my electorate of Canning—is located approximately one hour from the Perth CBD. Despite our relative proximity to the CBD, infrastructure in the Peel region is lagging in comparison to other metropolitan areas, particularly when it comes to telecommunications. There are still parts of my electorate that receive little or no mobile phone reception at all: places like Boddington, which is home to Australia's largest goldmine and still has patchy telecommunications; the outskirts of Waroona, which was recently affected—this Christmas gone—by the terrible bushfires which swept through the Peel-Harvey region; Jarrahdale; and, of course, Byford, which is one of Australia's fastest growing local government areas. In fact, I have one constituent who lives out past Byford and has to drive three kilometres downhill to receive a mobile signal. Ministers have fallen victim to the lack of coverage when they have visited Canning. In April, I had the member for Kooyong, who went for about 30 minutes without mobile phone coverage. Only last weekend, the member for Warringah suffered the same fate.

Having said that, though, I note that, during the six years of Labor government they did nothing in Canning to improve our telecommunications services. It took a Liberal government—a coalition government—to deliver and improve upon our telecommunications infrastructure. Under round 1, Canning received funding to improve the base station in Dwellingup. Dwellingup was the location of a very terrible bushfire that took place in the sixties, which almost razed the town. Every Christmas, the people of Dwellingup, Waroona, Boddington and the surrounds worry about bushfires. They rely upon telecommunications for emergency services so that they can alert the relevant bushfire firefighters to be prepared and respond to fires.

We need better telecommunications. It was a great pleasure during the recent election campaign for Minister Fifield, the Minister for Communications, to visit Canning and announce further funding for base stations in Lake Clifton and the Serpentine-Keysbrook area in Canning. I have had many constituents in Lake Clifton complain about the lack of telecommunications coverage—people who rely upon mobile phone coverage to run their businesses and to stay in contact with family and friends. It has been patchy, so the announcement during the election is very significant for the people of Lake Clifton, as it is for the people of Serpentine and Keysbrook, who are part of the local Shire of Serpentine Jarrahdale.

In regard to the Australian National Audit Office's three key recommendations, which those opposite keep raising, establishing minimum thresholds for assessment purposes is a great initiative, and the coalition government has always said that the Mobile Black Spot Program has dual purposes: to improve both coverage and competition in regional Australia. So we welcome more competition. We welcome more access to different services in Canning, whether it be Telstra, Vodafone or any other mobile phone service provider. The people of Canning deserve more options, and the Mobile Black Spot Program, funded to the tune of $220 million rolled out by this government, will deliver just that for the people of Canning.

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