Kate Ellis (Adelaide, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I have previously spoken in this chamber about phone towers and their effects on our communities. Unfortunately, I feel the need to revisit some of those comments today and emphasise how important it is that phone towers not jeopardise the health and wellbeing of our community. Before touching on those comments, I would like to speak briefly about the recent developments at RMIT where, as has been related by much media coverage, five people were discovered to have brain tumours within the space of a month and two others in 1999 and 2001. Of these tumours, two were malignant and five were benign. Five of the seven employees who were affected by these brain tumours worked on the top floor of the RMIT building and the other two worked on floors 14 and 11. This is a space used by about 600 staff and 12,000 students.

As somebody who represents a capital city seat, where there are many high-impact phone towers, I find these developments deeply concerning. Like most members of this House and many millions of Australians, I am absolutely reliant on my mobile phone; I would be lost without it for even a day, I would imagine. Having said that, I would never place the use of that phone ahead of the safety and wellbeing of our community.

Since the story of the tragic cases at RMIT hit the media, my office has been contacted by many concerned residents in Adelaide. These residents are concerned that the placement of many of these towers is not known. Many people working in buildings would not know whether or not there was a phone tower above it. I am certainly not standing here today advocating that the federal government should go and rip out all mobile phone towers and get rid of the technology. What I am advocating is that what we have seen at RMIT is a pattern of health problems, and I think it is very important that the federal government takes up the initiative of doing a full health audit where there are high-impact mobile phone towers in Australia to make sure there are no further illness and health patterns and to make sure that, if any patterns are discovered, they come to light. The community has a right to know about these. This is very important, because, as I mentioned, many people would not even know if there is a tower above their building. We need the federal government to show some leadership and conduct a full health audit where mobile phone towers are operating.

As I mentioned, I have previously spoken about the placement of phone towers and giving communities more of a say. I believe this is of the utmost importance, and I know that the member for Hindmarsh agrees with me on this issue. (Time expired)