Rebekha Sharkie (Mayo, Centre Alliance) Share this | Hansard source

Having decent mobile phone coverage is vitally important and often life-saving in our regional communities. So I commend the government for developing the Mobile Black Spot Program to offer real incentives for telecommunications companies to invest in the regions. I understand that initially the program offered to cover one-quarter of tower costs, on average. In later rounds, priority was given to those telcos willing to build infrastructure with longer battery life—a critical issue that I will expand upon later. To date, after three rounds, the federal government has contributed $220 million, with the total investment being $680 million, and about 600 of the 867 announced sites have been activated. However, much of Mayo remains without coverage, with 44 sites considered a priority still needing a signal.

On the positive side, infrastructure at Stokes Bay on Kangaroo Island and at Parawa announced in round 2 have been activated, and planning applications for round 3 base stations at Gosse on Kangaroo Island and Ashbourne have been processed. But we still have so many black spots, and this is a serious safety risk. Here's why: thanks to dry conditions, the countdown to our fire season has already begun in many parts of my community. Fires have already touched the eastern states and, today, I read that a bushfire three times the size of Kangaroo Island narrowly missed burning out a remote northern community in South Australia.

Fire is a real danger in the most densely populated electorate of Mayo, and in a few months we will face the prospect of regular days of declared catastrophic conditions. When this happens, power is deliberately switched off to protect high-risk areas from the danger of fire being ignited by powerlines. Under the NBN rollout, no power means no landlines and internet in fibre-to-the-node areas, and mobile phone towers go down after four hours. In wireless areas, it goes down immediately. The towers and the batteries just don't last long enough.

Before Christmas last year, I had several communities in uproar because we were left without mobile phone coverage, landline or internet during a week of total fire ban days. A year before we had a violent storm, and that left 15 communities in my electorate without power—again, for five days. No power is not just an inconvenience; for us it means no water and no sewerage. And the really scary thing is that when we have those things and we don't have telecommunications, it compounds the issue.

My community felt abandoned and incredulous that in this day and age telecommunications is treated as a commercial luxury rather than being a regulated essential service. It was because of their concerns that I introduced the Telecommunications Amendment (Guaranteeing Mobile Phone Services in Bushfire Zones) Bill in 2017, to compel telecommunication carriers to provide at least 24-hour stand-by power for phone towers in high-risk bushfire areas. I've not been backward in advocating for this legislation since that time. I note the National Party, when they had their federal conference last year, moved a motion calling for a 72-hour backup in all disaster-prone areas. I do not believe that 24 hours is a big stretch, as 72 hours is what the National Party were calling on. I ask the government to revisit my draft private member's bill simply because it will save lives.

I was advised by the minister that telcos have been encouraged to provide at least 12-hour battery backup, and I think that's a great start, but we do need legislative protection in this area—we don't have it now. I do welcome the government's announcement for round 4 of this program, but let's be clear: we do need round 5 and we do need round 6, because regional Australia should not miss out. When I do a drive from my part of the electorate, where I live, and go south I can drive for the best part of two hours and I'm still in my electorate, I will go in and out of mobile coverage many, many times during that drive. They are also the areas where we have a high risk of car accidents and many, many fatalities. Imagine the great trauma if you have a car accident and you pull up your mobile phone to try and get help from telecommunications, and there is not a single bar of service. You are vulnerable. You are helpless. I call on the government: round 4 is fantastic but, please, we need round 5 and we need round 6. Just because some of us live some distance from the GPO, we should not be forgotten. Thank you.

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