Julian Leeser (Berowra, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

In 2018 mobile phone coverage is an absolute necessity. Families in my electorate of Berowra need it to stay in touch. Businesses need it to deliver a modern service to their customers. Students need it for their projects. But, particularly, in a beautiful area like Berowra, surrounded by bush, surrounded by the Hawkesbury River, with skinny roads that people can get stuck on, it is absolutely essential. Modern communications are a matter of safety, a matter of essential services and a matter of urgency, so it's a source of great frustration and distress when reception isn't available.

I've driven around with my local RFS through local mobile black spots, and I know many residents call my office to talk about this when they stand at the edge of their driveway with reception of only one bar. These are already isolated homes, isolated by distance and saddled with old technology. How do you call your kids, deliver to your clients or reach out to your loved ones without the appropriate infrastructure? Black spots are as unsafe as they are unfair.

This is the policy imperative for the government's Mobile Black Spot Program, which has already delivered one new mobile black spot tower to my community—with more to come. The base station at Sackville North, switched on in December 2017, has extended coverage in Sackville North, South Maroota, Maraylya and Forest Glen. The new service is especially welcome as these areas are prone to natural disasters, including bushfires. The Sackville North RFS captain, John Turnbull, has told me that the new tower has had an immediate impact and that residents are receiving significantly better mobile coverage, allowing them to better communicate with each other and with emergency services when in need. He told me, 'This black spot breakthrough helps residents and the RFS in the event of a bushfire.' The tower was a key election commitment, and I'm proud we delivered it. The community is now seeing its benefits.

Two more towers are on the way for Berowra, one in Brooklyn, near the Hawkesbury River, and the other at Crosslands Reserve, capturing the surrounding areas in the Berowra Valley and national park. Telstra advises me that the planning for both towers has commenced and that they're on track for completion in the second half of 2019.

Our record stands in stark contrast to Labor's, which invested a grand total of zero dollars into improving mobile phone coverage. Our record is 867 black spots fixed across Australia, Labor's is zero. At the last election, Labor failed to commit to continuing the rollouts, but under our government over 600 base stations have already been activated under the Mobile Black Spot Program and we know that they've already connected approximately 10,800 triple 0 emergency calls.

I'm not stopping here and our government is not stopping here. We have now opened nominations for another round of the Mobile Black Spot Program, which will invest $25 million to boost coverage in regional and remote areas. Now is the time for my constituents to contact my office and report any black spots that affect them. I'm committed to fighting for better coverage in Berowra. I know that there are problems in Arcadia, especially down on Bay Road and its side streets and the side streets off Cobar Road. I know there are problems in Fiddletown. I know that in Galston shopkeepers rely on wireless point-of-sale machines, but that their service is patchy at best. Galston residents know the feeling of missing a call that never came through, and they know that the poor coverage extends right down Knights Road, Radnor Road and Fishburns Road.

Poor phone reception has been a daily reality for Berowra residents for far too long. It means that basic tasks are impossible or disrupted at a moment's notice. It forces residents to build contingencies and workarounds in their everyday routines. It prevents hardworking families and businesses from getting on with the important things in their lives—staying in touch and working together.

I know telecommunication is one of the biggest issues in our community. Every day my office receives phone calls about this and every survey we've done confirms it. Every time I visit a school and ask pupils about it, all their hands go up in the air. That's why there are already three towers allocated to the Berowra community, why they've been needed so desperately and why they've been so gratefully welcomed. They show the government's commitment to delivering practical change to improve people's lives. I'm committed to fighting for more towers as part of the government's Mobile Black Spot Program. Today, I encourage all constituents in the Berowra electorate plagued by poor mobile reception to contact my office, to report the black spots that affect them and to tell their neighbours, friends and colleagues—to tell the parents at your schools and the families at your church—that this is a priority for our government and it's a priority for me.

So I say to Berowra residents: bring out the black spots! Bring them to me in my office, and we'll fight for them every day until we fix them as a key priority for the Berowra community. We know that Berowra is a beautiful place to live. We know it's not that far from the Sydney CBD, but we know that the unique topography of Berowra and its unique location in the northern corner of Sydney means that mobile telecommunication is not what it should be. I say to Berowra residents: bring out your black spots! Let me go out and fight hard for our community.

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