Rowan Ramsey (Grey, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Minister, you'd be well aware that the government has spent $220 million on the Mobile Black Spot Program and that has resulted in 867 facilities in all being built throughout Australia, a mammoth build. In 2016, I chaired the Standing Committee on Agriculture and Industry's inquiry into Agricultural innovation and I can tell you, Mr Deputy Speaker Howarth, that the world is full of wonderful opportunities out there for our agricultural sector. But one of the biggest issues that keeps coming back to us from that sector is the substandard telecommunications. The NBN is a very big part of that story and I'm very pleased to report that, in fact, more than 95 per cent of my electorate of Grey is now enabled. I actually think it's 98 per cent. People are hooking on every day.

But there is an agricultural revolution happening out there and Australia is likely to be the first country using autonomous tractors on a broad scale, advanced crop electronic monitoring and stock management systems thereby removing the all too scarce component of labour from many of the regional and outback properties. The biggest priority issue raised throughout the inquiry was the lack of or unreliability of the mobile phone network. It's worth reflecting on the coalition commitment, the $220 million that we've already put in, and compare it with our Labor predecessors, who for six years put nothing into mobile phone black spots or mobile phones at all. In fact, it was much worse than that.

When Labor came to power, there was $2 billion in a rural telecommunication future fund that was put there after the sale of Telstra 3 and that, unfortunately, got hoovered up by Labor on its first attempt on the NBN. The minister was just referring to the NBN and the litany of failures. Remember that one? That was the $4.5 billion NBN network they were going to build and that was all done and busted, not a problem. In that, they hoovered up the $2 billion that was there to pay for the mobile phones, to pay for the upgrade of telecommunications in the bush in the future.

So the coalition reinvented the Mobile Black Spot Program, the first iteration of which came from the Howard government. Quite simply, it has been only the coalition that has recognised the value of this technology in regional areas for what we can do to enable that rural sector to power the Australian economy.

In Grey, the Mobile Black Spot Program has been partnered in building 15 base stations and eight small cells, 23 in all. I'm grateful. However, Grey is 92 per cent of South Australia, and we need a whole lot more, Mr Minister. I understand why South Australia did worse than the other states in the Mobile Black Spot Program. The previous government, the Labor government, through three rounds put in just a paltry $1½ million: nothing in round 1, $1½ million in round 2 and nothing again in round 3. The other states, by comparison, went hard. They poured in a serious amount of money to partner up with the Commonwealth, to partner up with the telecommunications giants to build hundreds of towers. We need that kind of performance in South Australia.

I'm very pleased to report that we have a new government in South Australia, the first Liberal government in 16 years. One of the first things they are prepared to do is put $10 million on the table to partner with anyone to fix mobile phone blackspots. They recognise the value that a better mobile phone network in the country will have to unlock the economic potential of their state. But they are wondering what to do with their $10 million at the moment, Mr Minister. I am telling them that they need to partner with us, but at this stage we don't have another round of the mobile phone blackspot program.

But I'm well aware that we now have a committee chaired by former senator Sean Edwards that is looking at what the next step should be in enhancing our mobile phone network throughout Australia. I'm urging my constituents to contact that committee and tell it where they think the mobile phone network needs to go. I'm very hopeful that that committee will recommend an ongoing contribution from the Commonwealth to that program, and certainly it will have my support and I will be lobbying to do that.

My question to you, Minister, as I draw to a close that very long preamble, is: what can we expect from the future mobile phone blackspot program, and is this government still up to backing rural Australia?

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