Cathy McGowan (Indi, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House:

(1) notes that:

(a) the Government has committed $100 million (GST exclusive) over four years to the delivery of the Mobile Black Spot Programme (MBSP);

(b) the MBSP is expected to provide around 250 to 300 new or upgraded mobile base stations across Australia;

(c) more than 6,000 locations around Australia have been nominated by the public, local councils, state government, community representatives and businesses as having ineffective or non-existent mobile phone reception; and

(d) the future viability and safety of communities in rural Australia and the electoral division of lndi are dependent on effective mobile phone coverage; and

(2) calls on the Government to allocate significant additional funding to the MBSP in 2015-16 to provide additional new and upgraded mobile base stations across Australia.

In opening this debate I call on the government to take up the mantra of the young people in Indi, that 'Where ever you are in Australia, you should be able to use your mobile phone.' I call on the government to start with the end in mind. The end is where mobile phone blackspots are a thing of the past, where we are able to work, travel, study and holiday with our trusty mobile phones in hand, in the city and in the bush. This will take money, partnerships and commitment.

I have been fighting to improve mobile phone coverage in Indi from the day I was first drafted by the young people. The poor or non-existent mobile phone services in my electorate—from valley to valley, township to township—impact on our economic viability, our social connectedness and our ability as a community to reach our full potential and the overriding need to be safe, particularly when we have emergencies such as fires and floods. Good mobile phone coverage is not an optional extra; it is the main game.

The government's Black Spot program extended mobile phone coverage in regional Australia—$100 million over four years to provide around 250 to 300 new or upgraded mobile base stations across Australia. The Black Spot program is a good program. It was an election commitment that the government is delivering on. The establishment work has been done, priorities have been listed and partnerships built. Today I encourage the government and my colleagues opposite to maximize the work done in this establishment phase and to expand it to pick up the next level of priorities that have already identified.

Clearly more funding is needed if we are to make sure that, where ever you are in Australia, you can use your mobile phone. But the hard reality is that the Department of Communications database has in excess of 6,000 reports of mobile phone black spots—and, in my electorate of Indi alone, 274 reports. The guidelines for the program point to improving coverage along the major transportation routes, in small communities, in locations prone to existing natural disasters and in areas with high seasonal demand—and Indi ticks all these boxes. We have 274 identified gaps, but we are allocated an estimated three towers to meet this need. It is clearly not enough; Indi and Australia need a much greater investment.

What to do? All levels of government, business and community are ready to act, and the Commonwealth is providing the leadership; it just needs the commitment. In Indi the groundwork has been done. The Indi Telecommunications Advocacy Group have taken the lead in mapping and reporting the mobile phone black spot areas. Strong partnerships have been developed with business, emergency services and community groups, seeking every opportunity to work with mobile network operators and mobile network infrastructure providers. They are very keen to offer their in-kind contribution.

The Prime Minister says that he wants to be remembered as the 'infrastructure Prime Minister.' I am here today to remind the Prime Minister that infrastructure is more than roads, rail and transport. Telecommunications is also infrastructure. Investment in communications infrastructure has the capacity to stimulate and enhance all areas of our economy. It is an investment that has multiplier effects throughout the economy and the community, and it gives as everlasting social and environmental benefits. This is the government's published infrastructure message, so I call on the government to make this the message for communications infrastructure also.

I call on Minister Truss to move now on building stronger regional economies and secure communities, delivering opportunities and prosperity for all regional Australians and ensuring a sustainable environment by allocating funding in the next budget to an extensive mobile phone black spot program. One hundred million dollars is not nearly enough to cover the need. Let us start with the young people's manta, make it our own and set an ambitious target, a date, so that by 2020, wherever you are in Australia, wherever you go, you are able to use your mobile phone.

Jane Prentice (Ryan, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Do we have a seconder for the motion?

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

I second the motion. I rise to speak on this motion before the chamber today. I want to start by saying that it was the coalition government, the federal government, as recognised by the member for Indi, that has made this very significant $100 million commitment that we are rolling out. We are incredibly proud that we have recognised the importance of mobile phone communications across rural and regional Australia. Like the member for Indi, I represent a large regional seat. One hundred and thirty-six black spots have been identified in the federal electorate of Corangamite and have been registered with the Department of Communications. We know how important it is for small businesses, for farmers and for families to feel connected, particularly in areas of high bushfire risk. There are many parts of my electorate where there are high bushfire risk areas, and being connected by your mobile phone is so important.

I do commend the member for Indi for bringing on this motion today, but I would like to say that the coalition government is the best friend of the people of Indi. The coalition government is the best friend of rural and regional Australia because, in contrast to our $100 million program, the previous Labor government, over six years, did not contribute one cent—not one cent—to fixing mobile phone black spots. In my first speech, I proudly stood up on behalf of the people of Dereel and I spoke about how that community in my electorate was ravaged by a bushfire early in 2013. They were hampered because they had no communications. The telephone lines were down, and they could not get the emergency alerts. I went in and I vowed to fight for them, and I vowed to fight for the people of Birregurra, the people of Gellibrand and every other community in my electorate.

I agree with the member for Indi. I would like to see more funding in this program because it is a wonderful program. I have already been lobbying the Minister for Communications in relation to more funding. Quite frankly, it is a terrible reflection on Labor that they have not recognised how important mobile phone communications is. It is like the NBN rollout under Labor—an utter disaster. The previous Labor federal government did not recognise that it must prioritise areas that need communications the most. Like the NBN, like food labelling, like standing up for small business, we are working very hard to stand up for rural and regional communities across Australia. It is like the fight for fairer fuel prices—another fight that you did not hear about under the previous government. These are big challenges, as the member for Indi has recognised, but I want to say that, of the 6,000 mobile phone black spots that have been identified, around 4,500 are sufficiently close to other nominated locations such that it is likely that one base station will be able to provide mobile phone coverage to a number of black spots. This is very, very heartening.

I also commend the minister's work in relation to identifying the partnerships, the co-contributions. In my electorate, I particularly want to commend the Golden Plains Shire, which has put forward a proposal in relation to a co-contribution. I have called on the Colac Otway Shire to do that as well. I would like to see more action from the City of Greater Geelong towards making a co-contribution, whether in dollars or in kind. Even places like Armstrong Creek are part of the great development that is occurring in the Greater Geelong region. Many people living in Armstrong Creek cannot get mobile phone coverage. For the people of Birregurra, Dereel, Gellibrand and all the other parts of my electorate and right across Australia, we are incredibly proud of our commitment.

Yes, I too would like to see more funding. In fact, I am so determined about it that on a recent visit by the Prime Minister to my electorate I said that we must stop at Birregurra. We dropped into the Birregurra general store where they serve a wonderful toasted sandwich and a great cup of coffee. I said: 'Prime Minister, I am bringing you here to Birregurra because the people of Birregurra need a mobile phone base station. They cannot do business in this wonderful part of the world unless they get the communications.' I am very proud of our government's commitment to this wonderful program. I support the motion, and I condemn Labor for its absolute failure to invest in mobile phone communications.

Michelle Rowland (Greenway, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Communications) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I want to thank the member for Indi for bringing this very important motion to the attention of the House. It is very clear to see why the voters of Indi put their trust in her, and I want to acknowledge her diligence on this issue and lend my support to the motion that is before the House.

One of the issues with mobile black spots—and this is what a lot of people do not quite comprehend—is that it is not necessarily a bit of black in a sea of white. A black spot is often a black spot in a sea of black, which underlies how different and how difficult it is to reach many parts of regional Australia. Whilst telco companies can claim their networks cover large proportions of the population, even up to 99 per cent of the population, the reality is that these high levels of coverage only equate to about 25 per cent of Australia's actual land mass. This is a reflection of Australia's highly urbanised population. Whilst our mobile carriers are always continuing to expand their coverage, there are limits to this coverage. The Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy stated in its document titled The 2011-12 regional telecommunications review:

… there are commercial limits to how far carriers are prepared to extend the mobile coverage footprint in regional areas. Much of the expansion programs are focused on boosting network capacity rather than increasing the coverage footprint.

In response to this, both federal and state governments have gone down the path of direct subsidy schemes in order to boost mobile coverage in rural and regional areas—and here are some examples. The Howard government spent around $145 million on improving terrestrial mobile phone infrastructure. Separate to this, in 2005, the Howard government established the Mobile Connect program—an $8 million program designed to extend mobile phone coverage in selected remote areas. Unfortunately, no applications were received from carriers. The regional telco committee further stated that it:

… understands this was due to the program’s lack of scale, the remoteness of most of the priority locations that had been specified, and the associated servicing costs these sites would attract.

So it all became too hard.

I want to make a few comments about the notion that the Libs and the Nats think they are the bastion of rural and regional communications and that they are the best friends of the people of Indi when it comes to regional communications, because the evidence shows that they are plainly not. You only have to look at the doyen of conservative telecommunications economics, Henry Ergas. Henry Ergas is no friend of ours, but he is a mate of Minister Turnbull's. In his book, Wrong Number: Resolving Australia's Telecommunications Impasse, he notes $3 billion frittered away by the coalition under John Howard—$3 billion. He writes:

These direct 'command and control' regulations have been paralleled by other interventions, often lacking in transparency and accountability … Thus, since 1997, over $3 billion (at 2007 prices) of taxpayers' money has been appropriated to schemes aimed at promoting the availability of use of telecommunications, mainly in non-metropolitan areas.'

It goes on. It refers to the Communications Fund. It gives line items: 'Mobile Connect' and 'Clever Networks.' What does that equate to? It equates to $3 billion wasted under John Howard while the convergence debate came and went, and here we still are today talking about basic voice accessibility in black spots.

And this is the problem. The problem is the laissez-faire attitude of the Liberal Party in charge of this. You only have to hear the parliamentary secretary stand up and say, 'Markets will resolve this.' That is their problem: 'Markets will resolve this.' At least we on this side are consistent. We say that where there is a market failure you identify the failure, you regulate and you have government intervention to the extent of that failure, unlike the Libs here running the show, giving free rein to markets. So I will not take a lecture from the member opposite. If we had $3 billion today to put into regional telco, maybe we would have a difference and we would not be here where we are today, still arguing about basic voice telephony.

I do not trust the Libs to do it. I do not trust the Libs to do it. And guess what: neither does your colleague the member for Mallee. The member for Mallee does not trust you either. Recently in the Sunraysia Daily, he savaged the communications minister and Mr Fletcher on their administration of the program:

"Frankly, it is too slow to roll out," … "We’ve been in government for 17 months now and are still fluffing around over it.

“It’s time we got it done.”

Then he went on to point out the stupidity of this government overpromising and underdelivering. There are about 300 mobile black spots in the Mallee alone. So I will not take a lecture from those people opposite about how to improve regional telecommunications, because we know only one side here is absolutely committed to it.

David Gillespie (Lyne, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to talk in support of this motion. I might just remind members of the House that John Howard, who has recently been criticised in this very chamber for delivering so much in the communication space, left a surplus, he left $20 billion in the bank, he left the Future Fund and he paid off the nation's mortgage. One would think any incoming government would put that fiscal position to good use. But, as we all know, for six years they sat on their hands and did nothing. You would think with the size of the deficit and the debt that has been built up—hundreds of billions of dollars of debt—there would be something to show for it. But in the mobile phone space there was absolutely no contribution whatsoever—absolutely nothing.

So I am so pleased to be able to be part of a coalition government that is actually putting its money where its mouth is. We have a $100 million black spot mobile phone program, which, as you know, is being rolled out. That $100 million is obviously not enough, but hopefully, coupled with contributions from about 130 local councils and/or state governments and co-contributions from industry, that will accumulate enough funds to put out at least 250 or perhaps 300 more base stations. It has been an exhaustive process and it is frustrating. But you have to choose from so many areas that are in the grey zone or, as happens in our area, areas that become black spots. When there are huge volumes of people holidaying in the electorate, the mobile phone coverage is overwhelmed.

The member for Bradfield, the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Communications, visited the Lyne electorate and accompanied me to a roundtable with lots of people who were affected by black spots in their day-to-day life or when emergencies happen. We did have a roundtable discussion in Wauchope. Areas that came to mind from that were the upper Hastings, Comboyne, Mount Seaview, the Camden Haven and many overloaded beach locations, where the population can double for two months over Christmas or during the school holidays when you basically cannot get anything done on the mobile network, either data or other internet services.

There are many areas that also desire and merit further help. I have mentioned Comboyne and Mount Seaview. Other areas that we have recorded are Kindee, Forbes River, Byabarra, Lorne, Elands, North Haven, Dunbogan, and West Haven up into Lorne—you could keep going, including down in the Manning; there are many areas. But we have to get the best value from the limited funds. It is a start. It is going to be multiplied by the in-kind contribution of local councils, with assets and access or fast approval, and with the co-contribution from the big players: Vodafone, Telstra and Optus. We will hopefully get 300 new base stations. I am looking forward to this being rolled out in the Lyne electorate, because we deserve it. We generate so much income. A mobile phone is now so vital in the life of a modern Australian. When you are contacting people at work—as tradesmen, agricultural workers, security workers—a mobile phone is now part of the essentials of modern life.

Members opposite might criticise us, but we are making a rock-solid commitment. It is rolling out. It is frustrating that it is not there yet. But when you look at the potential areas that need to be sorted through, it is an exhaustive process. The successful locations are going to be announced in the middle of this year and then they will roll out. I am looking forward to the upper Hastings, or even the coastal plain in the valleys just back from the coastal area in the Camden Haven—and also down in the Manning—being selected so that at least a couple of these mobile phone black spots can be addressed.

Sharon Bird (Cunningham, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Vocational Education) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I commend the member for Indi for the motion. It is an important issue and increasingly one that we all get significant representations on in our electorates. I represent a seat that covers the third largest city in New South Wales, Wollongong, yet we have significant black spot areas that create a real difficulty for people just trying to lead a normal modern life.

I was reflecting, as other members were speaking, that as an MP, if somebody had rung your office and said they wanted to talk to you about mobile phone coverage, nine times out of 10 it would have been to complain about the proposed siting of a mobile phone tower. I well remember when I chaired the infrastructure committee of this House and we looked at the legislation that covers those sorts of issues, because there was a great push to clamp down on and narrow the sorts of places that mobile phone towers could be located. You are always dealing with these competing problems: on the one hand, people complain they cannot get mobile phone coverage; on the other, nobody wants mobile phone towers. It has been a vexed problem for members of parliament at all levels, including our local government colleagues, for quite a long time. It is interesting that that has changed in more recent years as people become far more reliant on their mobile phone technology and their mobile broadband technology, which nowadays happens to be in the one device often, and more tolerant of the need to put infrastructure in place in order to get the sort of coverage they expect.

A couple of years ago I had a number of organisations come to me from the little town of Bundeena. If you are not familiar with it, it is right on the headland with the sea on one side and the mouth of the river on the other, and it is surrounded by the Royal National Park. It is a beautiful spot but it is really difficult to get mobile phone coverage. Organisations like the local Rural Fire Service, who have to provide services into the Royal National Park, were having real concerns. City based people would come down to have a lovely day and do a walk through the park and so forth. In emergency situations very often people were out of mobile phone range. People are quite complacent; they tend to presume that they can get mobile phone coverage pretty much everywhere these days, and they can be quite put out when those sorts of situations arise.

So the Rural Fire Service and the Bundeena Progress Association have been talking to me for quite a while about their problems. We got some of the carriers to come out and have a look at what they might be able to offer. The problem is that the geography, which makes it such a beautiful place, also limits the population size. It is difficult to get a competitive business argument up for better coverage.

It will not surprise anybody that I have put that on my list to Minister Turnbull as a site I would like to see this blackspot program go to. I am shamelessly using the opportunity of this motion put before us by the member for Indi to publicly lobby the minister to look kindly upon our application.

The other thing I want to touch on in the bit of time left to me—the shadow minister is doing a fabulous job in this space by inspiring understanding of the sector—is, as the previous speaker mentioned, the fact that private providers will often say to you, 'We've got this 90, 95 or 99 per cent coverage.' They are talking about people not place. That, by its very nature, ignores the fact that you are talking about mobile technology. People are mobile, so they are often moving into places that the footprint does not cover.

The other two things that the member for Throsby and I have asked the minister to look at are the transport links—the road links coming into the Illawarra and the train line. A number of people who commute for work want to use their mobile devices to have conversations and access their broadband. Those transport corridors—road and rail—are significantly important. So I hope my plea is heard. It is a genuine one. As a large commuter corridor, this area has many people from Sydney moving down. They are often quite horrified when they discover that our topography means that the coverage is not great. I think it is an important aspect of modern life and I am happy to put the plea in on behalf of my constituents.

Angus Taylor (Hume, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I commend the member for Indi, and all of those who spoke on this motion, for their focus on this issue because mobile coverage is of vital importance to countless Australians, particularly in my electorate. I find it difficult to understand how I got by without a mobile phone. It is extraordinary how much we depend on them these days. It is only when we lose our mobile phones—which I do from time to time—or we run out of battery, which happens to all of us, that we are reminded just how important mobile coverage is.

Those of us who are in country electorates are also reminded of this when we go out of range. And that happens to me every day in my electorate as I get around. Many of my constituents remind me that it happens to them as well. For the many small businesses—the increasing number of small businesses—based in my electorate, ranging from the edge of Sydney and Canberra right out into deep rural New South Wales, mobile technology is changing the way that they interact with customers. Mobile coverage ensures that they can be available and responsive to their customers' needs. And it means that they can be out and about, particularly if they are involved in sales—whether it is on site getting the job done, or getting out to potential new customers—and they can still be available to deal with queries from the office or from existing customers or suppliers.

But for many rural and regional Australians the full advantages of mobile phone technology are yet to come because it is too variable or unreliable or just not available at all. So today's motion recognises the importance of this, and how a lack of mobile coverage impacts on people's lives. From my extensive travel throughout my electorate, and the enormous amount of work that my office has done, I can pinpoint almost every mobile blackspot. Very occasionally I hear about a new one, but I pretty much know them all. I appreciate the enormous support I have had from around the electorate in identifying them. That is important to them not just for their work, but it is important for safety as well. There are large sections in the middle of my electorate without coverage where safety is a major issue. The Rural Fire Service talk about this often. In contacting and coordinating volunteers when responding to bushfire emergencies, mobile phone coverage is very important.

For all of these reasons, the government are very aware of these issues, and it is why we are investing $100 million in telecommunications infrastructure to address these issues—in contrast to the last government, which did no such thing. It was extraordinary listening to the member for Greenway talk about what we needed to do when in fact the last government did not do anything, and I can tell you my constituents are fully aware of that situation. The program will focus on small communities as well as major transport routes and safety issues that arise across so many electorates here in Australia. As I said, this is in complete contrast to the previous government.

We have identified many problem areas through the course of this—in fact 6,000. So there is a real need to leverage every dollar of that $100 million as well as we possibly can. We have asked Telstra, Optus and Vodafone to come forward with proposals for new sites and base stations. We expect that that $100 million will generate at least $100 million in private investment. I am also finding a spin-off from all of this is that some of the commercial providers are identifying sites where it is commercial for them to put up towers straightaway. That has certainly been true in Bundanoon and Wilton, where Telstra is proceeding with towers after much consultation with the community.

We are looking at the best ways of using our investment, and in particular we are looking at co-location opportunities. My office has spent an enormous amount of time looking at these opportunities. For example, as part of the rollout of the fixed-wireless network for the NBN we can piggyback mobile coverage on the back of the NBN. At Murringo, between Young and Boorowa, there is a wonderful site to do exactly that. In New South Wales we also have a network of Rural Fire Service towers that can be used for the same purpose. Typically, they have pre-existing roads and even power, and by using those sites we can dramatically reduce the cost of putting up a new tower. We have sites like that at Narrawa near Rugby and not far away at Mount Darling.

So there are significant opportunities to leverage the $100 million program. That is what we intend to do, and I can assure you that my office has done an enormous amount of work to make sure we get as much leverage as we possibly can from the $100 million program. I commend this program to the chamber. It is an important one and one that will make a real difference to the lives of many in my electorate.

Debate adjourned.