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

I rise to speak about a particular constituent of mine, a woman by the name of Alison McArthur, who was recently involved in a very innovative project, the Holly Smart Home Project, which is a joint venture between the City of Greater Geelong and Samsung. It is all about introducing particular technology into the homes of elderly people to track their movements and to identify when anything goes wrong. So it is very new in the innovative technology area, and Mrs McArthur is to be commended for embracing this trial in the Geelong region.

However, when I met and spoke with her about her involvement with this, I discovered that she still does not have a phone line into her home after some four months. Alison McArthur moved into her home in George Street, Belmont, and for the last four months has been desperately waiting for Telstra to connect the infrastructure she needs so that she has a fixed line into her home, which, as we know, particularly for older people in our community, is absolutely vital.

Under the Telecommunications (Consumer Protection and Service Standards) Act, Telstra has an obligation to ensure that standard telephone services are reasonably accessible to all people in Australia on an equitable basis. In the case of people living in an urban area, there is a requirement for Telstra to provide this infrastructure within 20 working days after a request has been made. So we are seeing a situation where this infrastructure, so important to Mrs McArthur, has not been delivered.

Telstra tells us there are some issues with iiNet, which is the relevant retailer, and there are some problems. I think iiNet probably has some responsibility as well, yet Telstra is responsible for the provisioning, installation and switch-on of the fixed phone line.

It has been a comedy of errors. There was one particular contractor who turned up and said the line was in the wrong place; it had to be reallocated and put to another part of the house. Then Telstra came back again and said, 'No, that's actually wrong; it should have been in the original pit.' So there has been a real saga, and I do appreciate Telstra's immediate attention in relation to this problem. I have been on the phone to them this morning and I know that they are concerned about this, but four months is simply too long. Telstra do have an obligation, under their Customer Service Guarantee, to make sure that every Australian has a fixed line, particularly for those older people in our community. We know how important it is and I would very much appreciate Telstra's immediate intention to fix Mrs McArthur's phone line.