Ann Sudmalis (Gilmore, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House:

(1) acknowledges that:

(a) improving mobile communications is of critical importance for people living in regional and remote parts of Australia; and

(b) the Government has committed $220 million over three funding rounds to the Mobile Black Spot Programme which will provide new or upgraded coverage to more than 3,000 black spots in regional and remote areas;

(2) recognises that mobile communications are not only essential for commerce, agriculture and education, but also for emergency services and public safety; and

(3) congratulates the Government for committing public funds to this important program to improve mobile communications in regional and remote Australia.

Today, I take the opportunity to reinforce the critical importance of improving mobile phone communications for the people living in regional and remote parts of Australia. In March this year, we announced the up-to-date information on the rollout of round 1 of the government's $160 million Mobile Black Spot Program. Residents and visitors to Gilmore alike welcomed the announcement.

The website, launched by Telstra, provided details on the construction status and timing of the 429 new or upgraded mobile base stations being established. Kioloa is one of the areas marked for a new station and our local residents have been monitoring this constantly. The website allows people to type in their postcode for updates and click on areas of the national map. The Mobile Black Spot Program will offer dramatic improvements to mobile phone reception throughout Australia.

The government is determined to boost mobile phone coverage across our regional and remote areas. The original rollout was boosted by contributions from Telstra, Vodafone and state and local governments to bring the total investment up to $385 million. The Turnbull government has committed more than $220 million over three funding rounds to fund the Mobile Black Spot Program, which will develop new and upgraded coverage to more than 3,000 blackspots in regional and remote areas.

Recently, the Minister for Regional Communications and the Arts, Senator the Hon. Fiona Nash visited Gilmore and announced the pledge to deliver mobile phone blackspot funding for towers covering the areas of Bewong and Wandandian. I know this has been an ongoing issue for many residents. In addition, the minister also announced funding for Clyde Mountain, better known to the locals as Pooh Corner; East Lynne and Kangaroo Valley. They will also benefit from the funding.

This is an essential safety pledge for the amenities of our local residents and also for the thousands of people travelling on this section of the highway. I remind the House that Labor invested zero dollars in mobile phone blackspots and made built zero towers in their six long years of their government. This government recognises that mobile communications are essential not only for commerce, agriculture and education but also for our emergency services and public safety.

Michele Edwards from Batemans Bay recently wrote me following a local event, the dry swim for the aquatics centre. The following is an extract to show just how important the establishment of a mobile phone tower is for certain locations on the Kings Highway. She writes:

I made it my personal agenda two years ago to see this area covered by mobile phone coverage. I will not rest until I see this completed. The Kings Highway is recorded as having 6,000 vehicle movements per day and has a high accident rate. One-third of the accidents on the highway involve locals. We need to fix this problem. You are unable to call emergency services when you are lying in your car, possibly bleeding or injured. You may be a young or inexperienced driver who cannot call their parents when they are slightly injured or their car breaks down. At the moment if you have an accident, you have to wait for the generosity of the passing vehicle to pull over and offer to help and then you have to wait 30 minutes until they can get to a phone and they are in range to call for an ambulance and help.

Michele's son was overtaken by a speeding driver on double lines. As the son veered to avoid collision, his car spun a 180 degrees and crashed on the opposite side of the road. It took some four vehicles going past before he could actually get help. Michele says:

It is time to fix this problem and I appreciate the efforts that the Turnbull government has taken to rapidly establish mobile phone blackspot remedies for remote areas.

I again remind the House that Labor put in zero dollars and built zero towers during their six years in government. Whilst we on this side acknowledge the importance of the rollout, particularly for safety and especially in light of Michele's letter, we also know that, for the economic value in regional areas, they need to have mobile coverage for tourism, agricultural enterprise and so many other issues, particularly when you have got farmers out in paddocks who may have the misfortune of moving into an area where they get stuck. If they cannot phone for help, they are definitely disadvantaged.

Having a coastal seat like Gilmore, where we have thousands of people bringing their mobile phones with them—and their iPads and everything else—our systems are completely overloaded to the point where businesses cannot get their takings through the phone and their connections because there is just not enough there for them. So this rollout is absolutely fabulous. I am very, very proud of the fact that is my government that has actually been rolling out this massive investment.

Rob Mitchell (McEwen, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Is the motion seconded?

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

I second the motion and I reserve my right to speak.

Stephen Jones (Whitlam, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Regional Development and Infrastructure) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this important matter, the matter of providing mobile phone communications to people throughout Australia no matter where they live. For all of the reasons outlined by the member for Gilmore, Labor supports this program. It is an important program because it ensures that mobile phone black spots and the base stations which support mobile phone telecommunications can be subsidised and distributed in those areas where there is demonstrated market failure and the operations of a normally operating mobile telecommunications market will not provide those base stations within those localities.

Deputy Speaker Mitchell, I am sure that you regret that you are sitting in the chair during this debate and not able to participate in it, because I know that you have been a strong advocate on this particular issue. I am also delighted to have the opportunity to talk in this debate because it is the first opportunity the parliament has had to discuss the issue of mobile phone black spots since the Australian National Audit Office released this damning report of the government's handling of the program. I will go to some of the findings of the Audit Office's report. In summary, the Audit Office has found that this is an important program but it has been monumentally mishandled by this government.

I will give you a few examples. In a program which has been designed to provide coverage of mobile phone black spots and to extend coverage into areas where base stations have not already been placed, the Audit Office has found that, of the 500 base stations that were funded by this government, 89 base stations provided no or minimal benefit to consumers. In fact, the government provided base stations in areas where base stations already existed. What was the price tag of this monumental blunder? Twenty-eight million dollars of precious taxpayers' money wasted on a scheme designed to fill in mobile phone black spots, as the program's title suggests. Why would you be putting mobile phone base stations in areas where there is no black spot? They are not extending new coverage. Twenty-eight million dollars has been wasted on this monumental blunder. Twenty-five per cent—that is one in four—of base stations funded under this program provided no new coverage.

So all of those people who live in an area—and there are 10,000 areas around the country listed on the public database that are mobile phone black spots—are probably looking at this—and, if they have not read the report, after this debate they will—and saying, 'I now know why I still have a black spot: because $28 million has been wasted and one in four of the base stations funded by this government has been placed in an area that does not extend coverage.' In fact, what it does is actually concentrate the market position of the dominant mobile phone carrier within the regional telecommunications market. Thirty-nine of the selected base stations were located within 10 kilometres of a base station already on another telecommunications company's network—39 of them. And, when pressed about this, the hapless minister responsible, the senator from the other place, said, 'Well, what we were doing is providing additional competition.' Well, no new competition was provided, because over 90 per cent of the towers funded went to the dominant incumbent, Telstra—the overwhelming majority of the new subsidised base station contracts.

Normally, when something like this occurs, you would see the parliamentary secretary or the minister responsible dragged into the Prime Minister's office and told, 'Explain yourself for this monumental blunder.' There is only one reason why that will not happen: because the cabinet minister responsible for this program is the Prime Minister. It was on the Prime Minister's watch that $28 million worth of taxpayers' money has been spent. During the election campaign prior to the last one, Mr Deputy Speaker, you would have been sent senseless by the Prime Minister saying, 'We need a cost-benefit analysis for every major infrastructure project in this country.' A cost-benefit analysis would have made a big difference to this project.

Rob Mitchell (McEwen, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Before I call the next speaker, I want to make a quick statement. Given I did not have the opportunity the other night, I want now to thank members of the House of Representatives for the honour of being elected as Second Deputy Speaker. So that I can properly represent my constituents and advocate for my community, I will continue to exercise my deliberative vote. To that end, it is my intention to leave the chair before any division takes place. I thank the House.

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

Mr Deputy Speaker, congratulations on your election as Second Deputy Speaker.

I rise to celebrate the wonderful commitment that we have made as a government to connecting Australians living in regional Australia through our $220 million mobile phone blackspots program. I say to the member for Whitlam: shame on Labor, a party that says it supports our program. The Labor Party, prior to the election, managed to commit to a total of nine base stations around the country, which shows that those members opposite have no commitment whatsoever to connecting regional communities, keeping us safe and ensuring that, whether you are a farmer, a firefighter, a tourist or a student living in a regional community, you have every right to use your mobile phone to get the connection and the communication that you deserve. What hypocrisy we are seeing from members opposite. The fact of the matter is that Telstra, unlike Vodafone and Optus, is the predominant carrier because it has chosen to invest predominantly in regional Australia—and I say it is a pity that Vodafone and Optus have not taken on board the needs of regional Australia as much as Telstra has. I think that the member for Whitlam needs to take this on board.

In my electorate of Corangamite, last year we announced 10 mobile base stations. Before the election, we announced another four mobile base stations. I can tell the member for Whitlam and members opposite that every one of those base stations is providing critical communications to those communities. Let us not forget that last year we funded 10 Telstra base stations, in Barongarook, Apollo Bay, Barwon Downs, Carlisle River, Cape Otway, Dereel, Kawarren, Gellibrand, Steiglitz, near Meredith, and Yeodene, which also services Birregurra, and Carlisle River was switched on in May 2016—and with what pride that occurred. This is a community that had been absolutely ignored by Labor. It now has communications that it never received before. Labor, over six long years, provided zero to mobile blackspots. Now we see this great commitment by the government. It is absolutely shameful what Labor have done.

On 24 May, the Prime Minister and the Minister for Regional Development, Senator Nash, visited Anglesea, and with great pride, after much advocacy, we committed mobile base stations to Anglesea, Aireys Inlet, Bellbrae and Birregurra. As we all know, the Surf Coast is an incredibly vulnerable part of my electorate, and yet it was ignored by the previous government. So I am very proud that, apart from the eight mobile base stations that we have funded in the Colac-Otway region, we now have another in Birregurra, an incredibly important town for farming and for tourism, as well as along the Surf Coast.

I want to raise one concern. One of the mobile base stations to receive funding is in Dereel, a community that has been hit twice by bushfire. I have on many occasions called on Telstra to expedite the rollout of base stations to areas of high bushfire risk. The people of Dereel deserve that base station as soon as possible. I was up there just last week, opening the new Dereel men's shed. I was able to again update the community and advise the community that Telstra have put an application in to nbn co to co-locate the base station on the NBN tower just outside of Dereel. But I say to Telstra: we need a move on. We need to make sure that those base stations go into the areas of high bushfire risk. Across the Corangamite electorate, there are many areas that are very exposed to bushfire risk. We all know about the terrible Christmas Day bushfire in Wye River and Separation Creek last year.

We as a government are incredibly proud of our achievements. We are incredibly proud that we are listening to the people of regional Australia. In the first round we funded 499 blackspots and now, with the third round being announced, we have committed $220 million. We have seen a hopeless, pathetic commitment to this issue from those opposite. We are very proud, as a government, to be standing up for regional Australia on this critical issue. Thank you.

Lisa Chesters (Bendigo, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is rare to actually stand in this place and see a government celebrate a program that has been proven to be a disaster. The previous two speakers from the government side did not even mention the Auditor-General's report into this program, which has just proved again what Labor has been saying from the beginning: this program is nothing more than pork-barrelling and this program is a lemon that failed to deliver value for money or the service that is required to regional Victorians.

I represent a regional electorate, the Bendigo electorate. We have received one tower that has been built under this program. At that rate, it would take this government over 100 years to fix the blackspots in Bendigo if in one term they build one tower. For that tower, all they did was attach it to an NBN tower that was built when Labor was in government. That is the great success this government is delivering in the Bendigo electorate!

We are not the only Labor electorate that missed out under this program, which the Auditor-General's report has now proven. There was the member for McEwen's electorate and the member for Ballarat's electorate. What do all these regional Victorian electorates have in common? Oh, wait: they are Labor electorates. This government used this program to pork-barrel their own seats.

That is what has been proven by the report released by the Auditor-General last week. What did the report say? That the Mobile Black Spot Program provided very little new coverage. Isn't the whole point of the blackspot program to fix blackspots, which means fixing the mobile phone blackspots by making new coverage areas? It did not deliver value for money. Aren't the Liberals all about value for money? You will do it for Defence manufacturing; you will send uniform contracts overseas to China. There will be value for money for the manufacturing of Defence uniforms, but you will not deliver value for money for the blackspots program.

Insufficient attention was paid to local issues and community needs, yet you claim to be the voice of regional Australia. This is what your own Auditor-General's report has said about your own program. The parliamentary secretary changed the minimal coverage requirements in the draft guidelines, but the person responsible removed this requirement. So we actually had the department suggesting that there be a change to the minimum coverage requirements and then this government's own parliamentary secretary changed it. You wonder why you have had this damning report.

This report vindicates Labor's approach to dealing with the blackspots problem. We have advocated that there needs to be co-location. For what we have in Bendigo—that one tower—we want to see things like that rollout across the country. What Labor committed to in the election—which the previous members have ignored—is the same amount of money to this program, but what we have also said is this program needs to be redesigned. It needs to put need first. This is what this government has not done. Instead, what it has done is pork-barrel its own seats. We need to make sure that we are addressing the needs of areas in our communities. We need to make sure that we are supporting our growth corridors, like in the member for McEwen's electorate, in my electorate, in the member for Ballarat's electorate and even in Corangamite, the electorate of the member who just spoke.

We did not commit to base stations based upon pork-barrelling to win seats and win polling booths. What we said is, 'We need to structurally redesign this program,' because we knew it was a lemon. We knew it was not delivering value for money. We knew it was not delivering new coverage, as the government claim. For all their ranting and raving, for all of their grandstanding about, 'We will fix mobile phone black spots,' they have failed. To design a program that does not deliver new coverage—what a spectacular failure! Yet what we have seen in the second week is the government members absolutely ignoring that and trying to be the champions of this program.

People in regional Australia know this government is failing to fix the mobile phone black spots issue. This is an issue that comes up over and over again. As we get closer and closer to summer, people start to get anxious. There are days in the regions where SOS is all you have on your mobile phone, but they are not getting a program from this government. They are getting a program that is rolling out slowly, is not creating new coverage and is pork-barrelling the government's own seats. If this government were serious, it would take on board Labor's proposal and join with us in redesigning the program the mobile phone coverage that regional Victorians need.

Andrew Hastie (Canning, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is always bracing on a Monday morning to hear from the member for Bendigo, particularly when she gives us tales of pork-barrelling and lemons and accusations that this government has done nothing with regard to telecommunications. It is rather ironic, because six years of Labor government saw no delivery of more telecommunications infrastructure, whereas this government has committed $220 million over three funding rounds to the Mobile Black Spot Program, which will provide new or upgraded coverage to more than 3,000 black spots in regional and remote areas.

This is very important to my electorate of Canning, which fits into the category of a regional electorate. It is important to note that the WA Department of Planning predicts that Perth and Peel—the Peel region sits within Canning—will reach a population of 3.5 million by 2050. The top of the Peel region—the top of my electorate of Canning—is located approximately one hour from the Perth CBD. Despite our relative proximity to the CBD, infrastructure in the Peel region is lagging in comparison to other metropolitan areas, particularly when it comes to telecommunications. There are still parts of my electorate that receive little or no mobile phone reception at all: places like Boddington, which is home to Australia's largest goldmine and still has patchy telecommunications; the outskirts of Waroona, which was recently affected—this Christmas gone—by the terrible bushfires which swept through the Peel-Harvey region; Jarrahdale; and, of course, Byford, which is one of Australia's fastest growing local government areas. In fact, I have one constituent who lives out past Byford and has to drive three kilometres downhill to receive a mobile signal. Ministers have fallen victim to the lack of coverage when they have visited Canning. In April, I had the member for Kooyong, who went for about 30 minutes without mobile phone coverage. Only last weekend, the member for Warringah suffered the same fate.

Having said that, though, I note that, during the six years of Labor government they did nothing in Canning to improve our telecommunications services. It took a Liberal government—a coalition government—to deliver and improve upon our telecommunications infrastructure. Under round 1, Canning received funding to improve the base station in Dwellingup. Dwellingup was the location of a very terrible bushfire that took place in the sixties, which almost razed the town. Every Christmas, the people of Dwellingup, Waroona, Boddington and the surrounds worry about bushfires. They rely upon telecommunications for emergency services so that they can alert the relevant bushfire firefighters to be prepared and respond to fires.

We need better telecommunications. It was a great pleasure during the recent election campaign for Minister Fifield, the Minister for Communications, to visit Canning and announce further funding for base stations in Lake Clifton and the Serpentine-Keysbrook area in Canning. I have had many constituents in Lake Clifton complain about the lack of telecommunications coverage—people who rely upon mobile phone coverage to run their businesses and to stay in contact with family and friends. It has been patchy, so the announcement during the election is very significant for the people of Lake Clifton, as it is for the people of Serpentine and Keysbrook, who are part of the local Shire of Serpentine Jarrahdale.

In regard to the Australian National Audit Office's three key recommendations, which those opposite keep raising, establishing minimum thresholds for assessment purposes is a great initiative, and the coalition government has always said that the Mobile Black Spot Program has dual purposes: to improve both coverage and competition in regional Australia. So we welcome more competition. We welcome more access to different services in Canning, whether it be Telstra, Vodafone or any other mobile phone service provider. The people of Canning deserve more options, and the Mobile Black Spot Program, funded to the tune of $220 million rolled out by this government, will deliver just that for the people of Canning.

Maria Vamvakinou (Calwell, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Before I call the next speaker, I wish to make a brief statement. I thank the Speaker for nominating me as a member of the Speaker's panel. So that I can properly represent my constituents and advocate for my community, I will continue to exercise my deliberative vote. To that end, it is my intention to leave the chair before any division takes place. I thank the House.

Rob Mitchell (McEwen, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

What an illuminating statement we received this morning from the member for Gilmore, who in raising this motion highlights the government's absolute failure to deliver telecommunications for regional communities. The member for Gilmore obviously must be on the outer in the government, because—seriously—if she is putting up this motion, they must really not like her very much, do they! They are making her come in here and put up a motion about an abject failure of this government. To congratulate itself on failing rural and regional communities just shows how desperate this government has become.

We know telecommunications is a very important issue. Mobile communications are crucial and potentially lifesaving for rural and regional communities—so much so that it was a central focus of the black spots program, the program that was scrapped in this year's budget but then brought back two weeks later in the middle of an election campaign just for political expedience. The report released last week by the Australian National Audit Office told us what we already knew living in the regions: this fizzer government has provided barely any new coverage for our communities.

It was a pork-barrelling exercise that failed to address the needs of rural and regional Australia. The program itself failed to meet its own criteria, and the Turnbull government has again failed on everything it touches in telecommunications. We have a PM with the reverse Midas touch: everything he touches does not turn to gold but goes elsewhere. It fails.

The government promised that the black spots program would improve mobile coverage in areas prone to natural disasters. Today they are touting the program as a success, yet my electorate is a stark example of how this did not occur, and our residents know a con when they see one. In our towns it is about safety. It is not about better reception to post selfies to Instagram or watching YouTube, which is what the member for Wentworth thinks is what people do with telecommunications; it is about making sure vital, lifesaving communications can give our communities the best chances of surviving disaster.

There were three criteria in this program: rural and regional, major transport routes, and areas prone to natural disaster. It is no secret that my seat has faced five major bushfires over the past six summers, including Black Saturday, the Mickleham-Kilmore fire and the Lancefield fire last year. We have many areas identified as being at the highest risk for bushfire in the state of Victoria. We understand in communities that no one source of communication can be relied on for bushfire warnings, but people in our towns do not have mobile phone access, they certainly do not have internet access, and television does not give up-to-date information—and let's not talk about what this government has done to community radio.

That is why we identified some 70 black spots in our areas, and this is where we talk about mobile black spots. We are talking about areas that have little to no reception at all. We are talking about people unable to receive the urgent emergency messages the CFA send out. In spite of all this, how many stations were allocated? Two. One of those was actually an upgrade of a decommissioned tower that had been out for 20 years and provided absolutely no coverage. In fact, the community put one of the biggest petitions in to say, 'Don't upgrade this tower; put it up on the hill where we can actually get better coverage for people who have been affected by bushfires.'

But there is this lack of consideration by the government, along with the disingenuous act of the member for Bradfield in removing the requirements for minimum coverage as part of this program. The government has been very quiet about that. It shows that this government is not interested in improving safety and connectivity to our regional communities. The drafted guidelines clearly included a requirement that 65 per cent of the coverage provided by a base had to be new coverage. The member for Bradfield, under the instruction of the current Prime Minister, took that language out of the program, to stop that.

So let's recap. We have seen 80 per cent of new base stations announced in coalition-held seats, with a solid handful in seats that they were desperately trying to electorally keep. We have seen a report confirm that this allocation meant that the program failed. It failed to improve access to communication for regional and periurban communities.

What we are about to face is another year of deadly bushfires, and this government should stop prioritising greasing its own wheels and start prioritising the safety and wellbeing of Australians. McEwen, which covers 4,592 square kilometres, as I said, is prone to natural disasters. We put in our submissions based on the criteria of the program by this government. But, in this context of the 500 towers announced in July 2015, 417 went to National-held seats and only two were allocated to an electorate which has seen the biggest natural disasters of modern times.

We asked how this could happen. We have sent many letters through to the government, and to date there has been no response. Ultimately this government ran a program—and I do not blame the telcos for what they did; I blame the government and the Prime Minister, when he was Minister for Communications, for establishing a program that puts dollars before life. As I have been saying for a long time, this program is broken, and the PM must recognise it and fix it now. (Time expired)

Maria Vamvakinou (Calwell, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The time allotted for this debate has expired. The debate is adjourned, and the resumption of the debate will be made an order of the day for the next sitting.