Aaron Violi (Casey, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

It's always important. I rise to speak about communications and the challenges that we as a community face in Casey. I'm lucky to represent a beautiful part of the world. We've got the Yarra Valley. We've also got the Dandenong Ranges, which is beautiful national parks and bushland but it's in mountains. We've got all the way out to the upper Yarra, with the Yarra Valley and upper Yarra combined area. So we do have many challenges with communications. We know how important it is that they work every day. I was out recently talking to residents in Powelltown at a community meeting and it was raised with me the challenges that they have around their day-to-day communications but also the issues they have when the power goes out. After a few hours, they lose phone reception as well. So there are many challenges in my community when it comes to access to reliable communications.

It is an area that has significant and ongoing disasters. Two-and-a-half weeks ago, we had a bushfire in our community. We have regular floods. Many people, including me, were impacted by the June storms of 2021, which left residents without power and communications for weeks and months in some cases. It is in an area that I spoke about in my first speech and I've advocated for. I've worked constructively with the minister over the last three years to make sure that we are doing everything we can to ensure reliable communications in my community.

The coalition is supporting the Telecommunications Amendment (Enhancing Consumer Safeguards) Bill 2025. However, I have to note that it is disappointing that the bill has entered parliament on the eve of the election. Given this is a setting week that we weren't going to have—we all know the Prime Minister was planning to not have this week—it wouldn't have been introduced at all. The unfortunate reality is that it is unlikely to become law before the end of this parliamentary term.

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