Dan Tehan (Wannon, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is with great news that I rise today and tell the House that we are going to get 12 new or upgraded mobile base stations in the electorate of Wannon. In particular, we are going to get them at Moonambel, Landsborough, Victoria Valley, and Mirranatwa. This is great news for those communities. It follows the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Telecommunications, Paul Fletcher, visiting each and every one of those four communities and hearing from them about their need for mobile reception—how important it is because they are tourism regions; how important it is because, being rural regions, they are vulnerable to bushfires. They made a compelling case to the parliamentary secretary. I was there for each one of those local community meetings, and I said to those communities that I would fight alongside them to make sure that we got mobile reception in those four locations. So it is with absolute pride and joy that I stand here today in the full knowledge that we will now see mobile phone stations rolled out in Moonambel, Landsborough, Victoria Valley and Mirranatwa which will deliver for those communities, which will make them good regional areas for tourism, and which will ensure they are safe from bushfires.