Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party, Shadow Minister for International Development and the Pacific) Share this | Hansard source

A bit like the budget, Member for Nicholls—all red.

Indeed, mobile phone coverage, as the minister for regional development has just pointed out, is vital. She mentioned the $8.5 million towards 13 mobile phone towers in Eden-Monaro. I hope some of those are in the areas which I am hopefully going to succeed her in, because some of the areas which she is responsible for—the Yass Valley and Snowy Valleys local government areas—are coming into the Riverina electorate. I certainly hope that some of those mobile towers are in the Riverina in those two LGAs. Let me tell you, as far as mobile phone communications are concerned, parts of those LGAs have certainly missed out, because their service is very patchy.

I had a meeting there recently, at Ardlethan on 25 February. I met with community members of Ardlethan and surrounds to discuss mobile connectivity. I was pleased that regional general manager Chris Taylor, who looks after southern New South Wales and the ACT for Telstra, group executive Shaolin Sehgal and network engineering executive Ashley Hunter were there to listen to the concerns of locals. I know the state member for Cootamundra, Steph Cooke, was there. Coolamon mayor David McCann OAM and the general manager of that shire, Tony Donoghue, were at the roundtable. They know full well of the hardships that people face when they don't have the right mobile phone communications.

I know in the years we were in office, 2013 through to 2022, we funded 1,400 mobile phone towers, of which 1,100 were actually constructed in our time in office. It made a huge difference. It's not just about getting the data and getting the convenience of modern living. It's far more important than that. Our farmers these days drive on GPS operated headers; their tractors are all very much geared to almost driving themselves. But if they are up in the top paddock or, indeed, a paddock right next to their house, and they don't have the right communications, they can miss out on spot prices on grain or spot prices on livestock. It can cost them tens of thousands of dollars. I'm certainly not exaggerating. I spoke to one Ardlethan farmer who said it cost him $11,000 because he wasn't in the right place at the right time and couldn't pick up a signal. It was just like the flick of a finger. He lost out on that deal. By the time he got to his house the price had disappeared. There have been a number of concerns in the Ardlethan area that Telstra is actively addressing.

I mentioned the importance of ensuring reception during heavily attended Farrer league football and netball games at the Ardlethan sportsground. It's a huge attraction for the town. They play their games in conjunction with the ground at Ariah Park. The Northern Jets, a good football and netball club, need mobile phone communications if somebody gets injured, either on the netball court or the football field. They need to be able to call an ambulance. The nearest one is at Narrandera. The rub here is that Narrandera is about to have some of its ambulance services taken away by the cruel Labor state government because, apparently, they don't have enough call-outs. I know Steph Cooke is putting out a petition about this and the pathology services at Cootamundra, which are going to be centralised in Young. It beggars belief that Narrandera will be left without some of the ambulance services the people rely upon and which are certainly needed, particularly if you get incidents and accidents around the area. If you haven't got mobile phone coverage, you haven't got too much at all.

Several residents mentioned medical dramas which have occurred in the district and the difficulty in getting urgent attention with a limited mobile service. I know that there was one particularly incident, not that long ago, where somebody had to climb up the silo and put their phone high up in the air so that they could get a signal. In today's day and age that's simply not good enough. Why should country people put up with such second-rate services. Telstra has a helpline for concerns regarding mobile connectivity, 1800990853, and I'd urge people to pencil that number down and use it if they are worried about their mobile connectivity.

The Telecommunications Amendment (Enhancing Consumer Safeguards) Bill 2025 is important, as we heard from coalition speakers and, indeed, those from the government. I know that the call-out has been done recently for mobile phone black spots, and, let me tell you, I have submitted quite a number. I might read the list into Hansard so that people in my electorate know exactly where I'm coming from in regard to supporting them and their efforts to get better mobile coverage.

These locations are: Ardlethan to Barellan, Ardlethan to Kamarah, Barellan to Weethalle, Bectric, Murrulebale, Methul, Moombooldool, Galong to Binalong, between Wagga and Junee, Illabo, Junee Shire, Junee itself, Lockhart, Milbrulong, Mimosa, Pleasant Hills, Ladysmith to Tarcutta, Mount Adrah, Tarcutta, Borambola, Coolamon to Temora, Sebastopol to Temora, Temora to Ariah Park, Temora to Methul, Berry Jerry, Coolamon to Collingullie, Currawarna, Harefield to Bomen, Junee to Eurongilly, Ladysmith, Lockhart to Wagga Wagga, west of The Rock, The Rock to Fargunyah, The Rock to Wagga Wagga, indeed Wagga Wagga to Galore, Wagga Wagga to Tootool and Wallacetown. It's sort of like I've Been Everywhere, Man!

But they are areas where people do need mobile phone connectivity. People from those fine areas have taken part in a survey that I put out there, including in Forbes, Grenfell, Ungarie, Weethalle and around West Wyalong. Indeed, they do need better mobile phone connectivity. You know what theme was central to all of those areas? They're farmers. They do an outstanding job growing the food and fibre that this nation needs and that we sell overseas as well. If they're going to be able to compete in world markets and get the best price, they need to be able to have mobile phone connectivity. I still remember going out to Murringo, near Young. There were a number of women running small, bespoke, unique little businesses on the back of mobile phone coverage that was scratchy at best. They were so pleased that we were providing a mobile phone tower for that area. It was quite incredible. It has—dare I say—brought them into the 21st century. They're wonderful people, and they should get the very best of services.

This bill establishes a carriage service provider registration scheme to increase visibility of providers operating in the market and enables the Australian Communications and Media Authority to stop providers which pose an unacceptable risk to consumers. As the member for Spence outlined in his contribution, there are penalties for those providers not doing the best thing by their customers and consumers, and, to that end, I think that's good. I agree with him wholeheartedly. During the sale of Telstra, I know that, back on 15 September 2005, my predecessor, Kay Hull, crossed the floor because she was concerned that the universal service obligations by Telstra would not be met.

Communications is a huge thing. It's a huge thing whether you're in the cities or the suburbs, but it becomes a matter of life and death in regional and remote Australia. It becomes a matter of life and death because, if you can't get a call through, you could very easily lose your life in those vital seconds, minutes and even hours, whether it's an accident on the road or a snake bite. Rural medicine has that uniqueness about it that requires prompt attention and prompt response, and if you don't have the right telecommunications, you could easily lose a loved one.

It is estimated that there are around 1,500 carriage service providers operating in Australia. However, there is no comprehensive list. That's a bit mystifying. This hampers ACMA's efforts to ensure providers are educated about their obligations and that there is targeted enforcement and compliance. This is so, so important. Establishing a registration scheme will increase visibility of the market, streamline complaints and compliance processes and create better overall market accountability. We need to ensure that we do our best for small businesses. I know that, under the previous coalition government, we had the instant asset write-off as a COVID measure. We had that as an unlimited amount of money. We'd increased it and upped it and increased it and upped it, to the point where we actually just made it unlimited and small businesses were able to go out and buy, dare I say, even telecommunications equipment. They were able to buy whatever they could to make sure that their businesses not only survived the pandemic but, indeed, thrived. The money that we spent on JobKeeper and the money that we invested—not wasted but invested—into the economy not only saved lives and livelihoods but kept the doors of business open.

I'm sad to say that that instant asset write-off disappeared in last night's budget, which was handed down by the member for Rankin, the Treasurer, at that dispatch box opposite. I'm sad to say that Australian businesses were left high and dry. I'm sad to see 29,000 businesses go to the wall in this term of government, and that's because it has been a bad government. It has been a bad government for small business, and small business is the engine room of our Australian economy. It employs five million Australians, but it comprises 97.2 per cent of business activity in Australia—it is done by those small businesses.

Dare I say, they will be pleased with this legislation. It's one thing that they can guarantee. Certainly, what they can also guarantee is that a Dutton-Littleproud Liberal-National government will certainly have their back when it comes to mobile phone service and telecommunications. We won't just produce mobile phone tower maps, which are just red. We will not just provide mobile phone funding for Labor electorates. We will be fair and we will be equitable, as we were between 2013 and 2022, when we were in government. We'd inherited a government that had done and spent absolutely nothing on mobile phone activity. I remember when I was Deputy Prime Minister I used to get calls and heckles from, particularly, the member for McEwen. His electorate benefited from mobile phone towers, and, dare I say, he had come from a government, the Gillard-Rudd government, which had done absolutely nothing in that regard, as far as putting money towards mobile phone towers went.

ACMA is going to play an important role in policing this legislation, and I certainly wish that organisation well. You look at the breaches that they've issued in the last 12 months, and it's a sorry list. But at least this legislation is going to amend the existing two-step process for the application of penalty amounts for infringement notices. At least there are going to be real penalties for those providers, those CSPs, who do the wrong thing, as there should be. I look forward to the next round of black spot funding. I don't hold any hope, however, in this government. What we need to do is get Australia back on track and re-elect a coalition government.

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