Jill Hall (Shortland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I wish to raise two telecommunication issues in the Shortland electorate in this adjournment debate today. The first is mobile coverage in the Caves Beach area of Shortland electorate and, secondly, television coverage within the Belmont, Dudley, Central Coast areas of my electorate. These are both issues that I have raised on many occasions.

I finally decided that the only way to deal with it was to bring it to this House. When the minister wrote to members of parliament asking them to identify black spots within their area, there was one electorate he did not write to, and that was Shortland electorate. He wrote to Newcastle electorate, which has got a much denser population than Shortland electorate, but he deemed that Shortland electorate, which is spread out from the eastern side of Lake Macquarie through to little settlements down on the Central Coast, to be too highly populated. I question that.

Thankfully, Telstra have identified that for mobile phone coverage in Caves Beach, the need for a mobile phone tower is the No. 1 issue in the Hunter. They see that it is paramount. It has been a problem for quite a while and they submitted to the minister in relation to black spots. Now, I am not holding my breath. I do not believe that the minister will make an announcement of a Telstra tower at Caves Beach. If he does, when he makes his announcement I will be eternally grateful and so will the people of Caves Beach. I am not holding my breath.

The other issue that I wanted to raise was in relation to TV reception in the areas that I detailed—Belmont, Jewells and Dudley. To some extent there are also areas down on the Central Coast that have very inadequate access, particularly to ABC coverage. I have written to the minister. I have been in touch with ACMA. I have had over 500 people in the Belmont area contact me. Belmont is an area that has a very significant population but still there has been no resolution to the problem. There was a problem in the Belmont North area of Shortland electorate. A transmitter was put in place there by the previous Labor government because they knew that there was a big problem. But unfortunately I have only received rhetoric and weasel words in response to my letters to the current minister. He responded by saying that there are solutions, that they are engaged in discussions, and that there are various technical factors. He said that it is unlikely that any terrestrial base solutions will fix the problem, abrogating their responsibility.

I have invited ACMA and regional broadcasters to attend a public meeting with me, and they have all declined. The minister has suggested that the residents of the Belmont area may like to invest in—pay for—VAST so they can access free-to-air television. So the minister is suggesting that the people of Shortland, Belmont, Dudley and other areas of the Central Coast, actually pay to get free-to-air television. Now that is not good enough. They are generic programs. People living in our area will not get access to local news, they will not get access to local advertising and they will be receiving a second-class service.

I call on the minister to act on both these issues—to resolve the television reception in the areas that I have identified and also to ensure that the residents of Caves Beach can have mobile coverage.

Question agreed to.

Federation Chamber adjourned at 11:54