Rebekha Sharkie (Mayo, Nick Xenophon Team) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

The Telecommunication Amendment (Guaranteeing Mobile Phone Service in Bushfire Zones) Bill 2017, which I'm introducing today, seeks to ensure vulnerable communities in high bushfire risk areas can use their mobile phones for the critical 24 hours after a blackout.

This legislation would require telecommunication carriers to provide 24-hour stand-by power capability for mobile phone towers that operate in high-risk bushfire communities.

The federal government agency, Emergency Management Australia, would be tasked with identifying high-risk bushfire communities, taking into account long-established and widely used state and territory based mapping of bushfire risk areas. The Australian Communications and Media Authority would be responsible for determining the detail of the regulations that enforce these provisions.

In just a few months' time, the bushfire danger season will start in my electorate and in most electorates in the southern half of Australia, from Perth in the west and to Sydney in the east.

I do not want my community or others in high-risk bushfire areas to once again face the risk of zero communication with the outside world because the NBN doesn't work in a blackout, and there is no legislative requirement on the telecommunication companies to ensure that there is enough stand-by power available for mobile phone towners.

In a meeting in my office with NBN officials to discuss this problem, we were told in no uncertain terms that every NBN customer, no matter the technology, could assume they will have zero access to not only the internet in a blackout but also their landline and their mobile phone.

Seven months ago, in the first sitting week of the 2017 parliamentary year, I stood up in question time and asked the Prime Minister what he was going to do about the fact that, for nearly five days in the middle of the bushfire season, thousands of my constituents had zero access to telecommunications.

Let me set the scene. Just before midnight on 27 December last year a major storm swept across the mid-north of South Australia and through the Mount Lofty Ranges, bringing down large trees and powerlines. At one stage, 183,000 households were without power. The damage was particularly severe in the Adelaide Hills. On New Year's Eve, four days after the storm, 15 communities still remained without power.

If you live in the metropolitan area, you might think that this is just no refrigeration and no cooking or possibly no hot water. However, in parts of the Adelaide Hills, where there is no mains water connection, no power means no water, no pumps to run bores, no rainwater tanks, no toilets and no septic sewerage systems.

But of particular concern to my community was the lack of telecommunications. Households with the downgraded NBN fibre-to-the-node technology lost their landline and internet service immediately—no power, no NBN. Everyone with mobile phones lost coverage after approximately four hours, when batteries in local mobile phone towns ran out. Those lucky enough to have copper landlines and old-fashioned handsets had communication for about 36 hours, until the battery backup at the exchanges ran out.

So, in the middle of the fire danger season, the only way most residents could know if a fire had in fact started in our region was to go outside and look for smoke. We have residents with mobility issues, elderly residents and residents who are quite isolated, living in hilly country where there is only one road into a community. I have the oldest electorate in South Australia. That alone brings a degree of vulnerability.

This is simply not good enough. Under the NBN, I believe the high-risk bushfire communities are more vulnerable today than when the Ash Wednesday bushfires swept across South Australia and Victoria in the 1980s. Given the tragic history of major bushfires in the Mount Lofty Ranges, we were incredibly lucky a fire didn't start in that Christmas to New Year's Eve period.

Community concern was such that residents organised a series of public meetings after the clean-up, inviting local leaders to attend and answer questions. I attended as the local federal member and was asked to explain what legislation existed to ensure communications were maintained during emergencies. To summarise my investigations, there are none.

While telecommunications legislation imposes certain obligations on telecommunications providers, exemptions are available in the event of an emergency, such as a natural disaster or extreme weather event. For example, communications service providers are generally exempt from requirements, such as the customer service guarantee, provided they meet certain notification requirements. And there is no requirement for carriers to keep their mobile phone services operating. According to ACMA, responding to a question on notice from my colleague Senator Griff, the agency has not raised the NBN power problem as a potential issue with the Critical Infrastructure Advisory Council. The argument appears to be that, as long as carriers warn their customers about the limitations of NBN technology, that is sufficient. My community was shocked. They wonder how it can be when telecommunications is such an integral part of our lives and such an integral part of South Australia's emergency management plan and other state and territory management plans.

In South Australia, the State Emergency Management Plan focuses a large part of its public communication strategy via the online platform Alert SA and emergency SMS messages. If SA Power Networks cut the power, as usually happens on a Catastrophic day or when fire starts, it seems that we can expect mobile phone towers will run out of battery. If the power cuts in the morning, we'll run out by lunchtime. This bill would provide a critical window of 24 hours on a potential bushfire-risk day where residents do not have access to emergency SMS messages and other information to assess what they should do. Again, it is simply not good enough and my community wholeheartedly agrees.

After their public meetings, they put together a report and one of the 31 recommendations was a call for the federal government to work with carriers to ensure there was adequate backup. In introducing this bill, I'm attempting to address this potentially life-threatening oversight. If we, indeed, are a nation of innovation, I do not think it is too much to ask telecommunication companies to provide 24-hour standby power capability to mobile phone towers that operate in high-risk bushfire areas. Taxpayers have spent $600 million of their money for carriers to build or upgrade more than 760 towers across rounds 1 and 2 of the Mobile Black Spot Program. I think the least we can expect is 24-hour backup. This is a simple protective measure for regional communities in Australia and the higher risk bushfire areas. I encourage the government to consider this private member's bill as a matter of urgency. Mr Speaker, I would ask if the member for Indi could use my remaining three minutes to discuss this important issue.

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Is the motion seconded?

Cathy McGowan (Indi, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'm very pleased to second this bill to acknowledge the work of the member for Mayo and to congratulate her for this really important piece of legislation. It is vitally important for all rural and regional Australia, particularly my electorate of Indi, which is absolutely fire-prone. To all the CFA in Indi, to the SES and to the local government emergency managers: it gives me so much pleasure to work together with the crossbenchers who really care for rural and regional Australia. This is an example of how we bring to this parliament issues that the major parties refuse to take up.

Congratulations, member for Mayo. I'm really pleased to second the motion, not only because North East Victoria is prone to bushfire but because the whole topic of telecommunications falls off the government's agenda. We know how vitally important it is to have access to telecommunications in our towns. In a minute I'm going to talk about round 4 of the Mobile Black Spot Program, but, before I do, I can't stress how important this is. In times of emergency and with the changes that are taking place, exactly as the member for Mayo said—in the old days we had a telephone line that was independently powered and now we're moving on to the NBN which is not, and we have limited backup—we'll really get caught in a bushfire circumstance. This particular legislation has been well researched. I call on the government to pay attention and to bring action in this regard.

I would also like to briefly talk about the Mobile Black Spot Program, which was a really important part of the government's 2013 election commitment, but they've let the ball drop. We've had round 1 and round 2. We've had promises of round 3 and no commitment at all to round 4. I've talked to the Prime Minister about this and I've talked to the members of the government about it, saying, 'Walk the talk and show us where the money is for round 4 so that we can complete the work of fixing these black spots, particularly in areas where we don't have access.' That's the whole idea: fund the telcos to build mobile phone towers where we don't normally have access, particularly in fire-prone areas. So bring on round 4.

I'm putting the government on notice, including the Prime Minister and the Minister for Communications, that in the 2018 budget we expect round 4 to be well funded. We may need round 5, but round 4 should be enough for the 200 remaining black spots that have been identified in my electorate of Indi, just for starters, to get onto the national budget and for something to be done to actually make sure that people in these communities have access to exactly the same services that our city cousins do. I'm very pleased to second the legislation. Congratulations to the member for Mayo for bringing it on. This is an example of really effective action by Independents in this parliament and I'm so pleased to be part of this team of five and the great work that we do in this area.

Honourable members: Hear, hear!

Debate adjourned.