Patrick Secker (Barker, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I present to the House a petition with 489 signatures regarding the lack of mobile phone coverage at Walker Flat, a thriving community on the Murray River. Just about every adult who lives in Walker Flat has signed this petition. To put that in perspective, that would be like getting four million signatures in Sydney. That is how important this is to the local people in Walker Flat.

Mobile phone coverage along this stretch of the Murray River between the towns of Punyeroo and Bowhill is poor, with residents, businesses and holiday-makers unable to make or receive any mobile phone calls whilst in this vicinity. Houses, businesses and houseboats have no communication along this stretch of the river other than through landlines. I point out that when you are on a boat it is a bit hard to have a landline. This lack of mobile phone coverage requires residents to walk to the tops of hills in the area to try to gain mobile phone reception.

In Australia the use of mobile phone technology has grown significantly during the past five years, and more Australians have become increasingly reliant on this technology; in fact, many people use mobile phones as their sole means of communication. Mobile phone reception is essential in communities such as Walker Flat, and I call on the government to rectify this major communication failure.

Labor are up to their tricks again. When I first came into this parliament nearly 10 years ago, Labor had already arranged to get rid of the old analog coverage, which was pretty important for rural areas. It was up to the incoming Howard government to fix up that problem with CDMA coverage, which it did very well. Unfortunately, six months after this the Rudd Labor government have turned off the CDMA network, which was very important for rural areas, and we still do not have satisfactory mobile phone coverage in large areas of rural Australia. We always made the point when we were in government that we would not allow the CDMA coverage to be turned off until we had coverage at least as good as the old CDMA network. There is no doubt that this government is failing in rural areas, and I call on this government to fix up this problem.

It is with great pleasure that I present the petition.

The petition read as follows—

This petition of the undersigned citizens of Australia draws to the attention of the House that mobile phone coverage along a stretch of the River Murray at Walker Flat, South Australia between the towns of Punyeroo and Bow Hill is incredibly poor with residents, businesses and holiday makers alike unable to make or receive any mobile phone calls while in this vicinity. Houses, business and house boats have no communication along this stretch of river except for landlines. Those who do not have landlines in this area have to walk to the tops of the hills in the area to try and get mobile phone reception. In Australia the use of mobile phone technology has grown significantly during the past five years and more Australians are becoming increasingly more reliant on using mobile phones. Therefore, good mobile phone coverage is essential in Walker Flat, especially if an emergency phone call needs to be made.

We therefore ask the House to support and encourage the Federal Government to ensure that the problem of poor mobile phone coverage at Walker Flat is rectified.

from 489 citizens.

Petition received.