Sarah Henderson (Corangamite, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

When I was elected I committed to the people of Corangamite that I would be their strong local voice. Today I rise to speak out on the communications issues facing residents in West Bellbrae. Last week I hosted a community meeting in Bellbrae. I was shocked to learn that one couple, Maxine and Noel Flakemore, have suffered dropouts with Telstra's fixed-line phone service for almost 28 years. Three or four times a year the line drops out for between one and three weeks at a time. Other residents said that the situation had become so bad that they had cancelled their fixed-line service. Under the Telecommunications Act, Telstra has an obligation to ensure that standard telephone services are reasonably accessible to all people in Australia on an equitable basis. Things are no better with mobile phone coverage, which is patchy at best, or the internet. There is no ADSL broadband, and the connection by mobile wireless is costly and slow. Everyone from businesses to students to local schools are paying the price.

I am advocating extremely hard for Bellbrae to be included in our government's $100 million mobile phone coverage program as well as our NBN rollout schedule to be announced later this year, along with the southern suburbs of Geelong and other parts of Corangamite, such as Torquay and Ocean Grove. I am proud that, unlike Labor, our NBN will prioritise rural and regional Australia.