John Alexander (Bennelong, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

An issue of great concern affecting residents in my electorate of Bennelong is the consultation processes governing the installation of mobile phone base stations. Recently Telstra has progressed significantly towards a decision for a new site on Mobbs Lane in Carlingford, whilst a shop owner is being enticed with a reported five-figure annual lease fee to place the base station above their shop despite the fact that it is situated across the road from a preschool and a kindergarten and is within 50 metres of a child’s bedroom window.

I was encouraged that Telstra was conducting two consultation sessions with the local community to discuss the available site options, as they are required to do so under the telecommunications law. At the first meeting yesterday the Telstra representative is reported to have privately told several residents that the site decision had already been made and that they were wasting their time discussing it any further. This assertion was quickly rescinded when the representative was questioned in front of the main forum, which was attended by a Daily Telegraph journalist, but this attitude is certainly consistent with my previous experiences at a Telstra site in Quarry Road in Ryde. As the federal MP, I am absolutely committed to ensuring that the residents of Carlingford and of the whole of Bennelong are able to access full and transparent consultation at the start of any such decision making processes. This is an issue of great concern for any community, and apparent tactics of intimidation designed to make residents feel helpless are not in line with a corporate citizen’s responsibilities.

I pledge to the residents of Carlingford that I will stand by your side in the pursuit of the fairness and transparency you deserve. I hope that further parliamentary speeches and community demonstrations are not necessary as Telstra prove to the people of Bennelong that they will facilitate fair and transparent processes of consultation, provide a full assessment to all possible site locations, make public the reasons for preferencing one site over another prior to a decision being made and prove that the system of self-regulation in this industry is actually working. Companies that benefit from self-regulation must demonstrate that they are performing within the spirit and the letter of that regulation.

The reports on Mobbs Lane to date seem to fall far short of that standard. My role as MP is to police the compliance of the regulations to make sure that the system works. I look forward to working closely with Telstra and the people of Carlingford to prove to all of us that this is the case so that a result of mutual satisfaction can be attained. Representations regarding a proposed facility in North Ryde eventually led to transparent consultation and a willingness by Optus to review their decisions in light of the opposition expressed by the community and the pressure applied by my office. I hope that this is a standard that can be repeated.