Michelle Landry (Capricornia, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

One of the big issues facing regional families, small business and farming operations, particularly those in remote areas of Capricornia, is access to reliable digital and mobile phone services. That is why our coalition government is rolling out its $100 million program to help fix some of these black spot areas around Australia. I am pleased that four new mobile phone base towers will be built around Capricornia, at a cost of $3.14 million. These towers will be at Clarke Creek, about two hours north-west of Rockhampton; at Marlborough; at Mount Chalmers Road between Rockhampton and Yeppoon; and at Gargett, a rural area in the Pioneer Valley west of Mackay.

These projects will be covered under round 1 of our Mobile Black Spots Program, which recognises that families in regional Australia matter just as much as those in the capital cities. Fifteen out of 71 mobile black spots nominated in Capricornia will be addressed under this round. While there is plenty more to do, this is a good start and a far better improvement than when Capricornia was in the hands of Labor. Further coverage will be provided by hand-held or external antennae to Cawarral Road, Keppel Sands Road, Clarke Creek and the Pioneer Valley areas of Finch Hatton, Pinevale, Gargett, Pinnacle, Mia Mia, Septimus, Mirani and Svendsen Road. Mobile phone services will also improve on the Bruce Highway and other main roads, including between Marlborough and Sarina roads; Mount Chalmers Road at the intersection of Sleipner Road; and Yeppoon Road between Rockhampton and Yeppoon.

I want to highlight the community of Clarke Creek and local mother Lynise Conaghan, who has been tireless in leading a campaign to improve services in the area for many years. Thank you, Lynise; you are a great advocate for your community. In fact, on one visit to Clarke Creek, I labelled it as a place worse than Africa when it comes to mobile phone black spots—because you can make a mobile phone call from Central Africa but not from Clarke Creek in Central Queensland, and the school curriculum took 20 hours to download.

I am also keen to help other small rural communities such as Stanage Bay to improve mobile services. I have been talking to locals including Trudy Mace, whose children are educated on the family's remote cattle station via the Capricorn School of Distance Education. I look forward to continuing to support them just as I did for Clarke Creek.