Nola Marino (Forrest, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House:

(1) recognises the vital importance of mobile phone coverage to people living, working and travelling in regional and remote parts of the country;

(2) notes that:

  (a) the Government has committed $220 million to the Mobile Black Spot Program to invest in telecommunications infrastructure that improves mobile coverage across Australia;

  (b) over 600 base stations have already been activated under the program; and

  (c) base stations constructed under the program have already connected approximately 10,800 Triple Zero emergency calls; and

(3) calls on the Government to maintain its commitment to regional communications.

I would like to recognise Lieutenant Josh Cowell, who is in the chamber today. He is with the ADF program.

I'm very pleased to speak about the government's improvement of mobile reception across Australia. The coalition government has a long track record in delivering for rural and regional Australians. Alternatively, the Labor Party does not. Mobile coverage is only one example of that. When Labor was in office for six years, they did not invest one cent in improving mobile coverage, and that's a fact. When Labor was in office for six years they didn't build one new mobile tower; that's another fact. And when in office for six years, they didn't upgrade one mobile tower: another fact.

Since the Liberal led government was elected to office five years ago, 867 new base stations have been built on our watch, a great fact. We've invested $220 million in improved mobile coverage and created the Mobile Black Spot Program that has improved mobile reception throughout Australia. It's a great initiative. It's not only for rural, regional and remote areas that the government delivers, but across the board; that's what we do while we're in government. When I came into this House, I came to help improve the lives of people in regional, rural and remote Australia. These programs are a key part of that delivery and I'm very proud of them.

It's fitting that I opened the 300th mobile tower delivered by Telstra with their CEO, Andy Penn, at Wellington Mill in January this year. In the South West, I've secured 19 new mobile base stations. It's really good for locals. There are 19 different and new locations where mobile coverage has improved on this government's watch. The impact they've made to the lives of thousands of people in the South West has been outstanding, and the improvements for local emergency services are also outstanding. There is one doctor who is an anaesthetist in the Ferguson Valley who used to have to park his car up on the top of the hill when he was on duty at the local hospital so that he could get reception to get the phone call. Now, he can actually stay in his home and receive that phone call. We're delivering services that are more equal to those of people living in the metropolitan area.

Nationally, we'll cover over 90,500 square kilometres of new and upgraded handheld coverage. Additionally, we'll cover over 204,400 square kilometres of new external antenna coverage, as well as over 8,000 kilometres of new coverage to major transport routes. This is just so important in rural, regional and remote Australia. These key communications upgrades go to the heart of this government delivering for all Australians, not just for those who live in metropolitan areas.

In April we announced the commencement of the Government Regional Telecommunications Review, allowing those living in rural, remote and regional areas to have their say on telecommunications issues in their area. It is more proof that the government listens to and delivers for people in regional, rural and remote Australia. We want to see a connected regional Australia that is prosperous and vibrant.

Recently, the government announced that we were reopening the Mobile Black Spot Program's database of reported black spot locations for new nominations. The database will be shared with applicants, assisting them to identify locations where we need to improve mobile coverage on an ongoing basis. This round aims to improve outcomes for regional businesses as well as emergency services, health, education and tourism services. This is a great program and an initiative of the Liberal-led government, as I mentioned earlier. It has been extraordinarily well received. This fourth round is really music to the ears of people who live and work—even those in emergency services—in rural and regional areas.

This is in direct contrast to those opposite, who didn't spend a cent on improving mobile reception when they were in office. I commend the long and solid communications track record of this government to the House. But, again, I would go to those in the emergency services, who have regularly come along to the opening of new towers. They are just so grateful to be able to have the connectivity always in rural and regional areas—if it's fire or flood, or whatever the emergency is. Local volunteers, St John Ambulance people and the local fire and emergency services organisations do an amazing job. We can't do without those volunteers, but connectivity for them is a critical part of the important services they deliver for people in our areas.

Andrew Gee (Calare, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Is the motion seconded?

Lucy Wicks (Robertson, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I second the motion and reserve my right to speak.

Rebekha Sharkie (Mayo, Centre Alliance) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Having decent mobile phone coverage is vitally important and often life-saving in our regional communities. So I commend the government for developing the Mobile Black Spot Program to offer real incentives for telecommunications companies to invest in the regions. I understand that initially the program offered to cover one-quarter of tower costs, on average. In later rounds, priority was given to those telcos willing to build infrastructure with longer battery life—a critical issue that I will expand upon later. To date, after three rounds, the federal government has contributed $220 million, with the total investment being $680 million, and about 600 of the 867 announced sites have been activated. However, much of Mayo remains without coverage, with 44 sites considered a priority still needing a signal.

On the positive side, infrastructure at Stokes Bay on Kangaroo Island and at Parawa announced in round 2 have been activated, and planning applications for round 3 base stations at Gosse on Kangaroo Island and Ashbourne have been processed. But we still have so many black spots, and this is a serious safety risk. Here's why: thanks to dry conditions, the countdown to our fire season has already begun in many parts of my community. Fires have already touched the eastern states and, today, I read that a bushfire three times the size of Kangaroo Island narrowly missed burning out a remote northern community in South Australia.

Fire is a real danger in the most densely populated electorate of Mayo, and in a few months we will face the prospect of regular days of declared catastrophic conditions. When this happens, power is deliberately switched off to protect high-risk areas from the danger of fire being ignited by powerlines. Under the NBN rollout, no power means no landlines and internet in fibre-to-the-node areas, and mobile phone towers go down after four hours. In wireless areas, it goes down immediately. The towers and the batteries just don't last long enough.

Before Christmas last year, I had several communities in uproar because we were left without mobile phone coverage, landline or internet during a week of total fire ban days. A year before we had a violent storm, and that left 15 communities in my electorate without power—again, for five days. No power is not just an inconvenience; for us it means no water and no sewerage. And the really scary thing is that when we have those things and we don't have telecommunications, it compounds the issue.

My community felt abandoned and incredulous that in this day and age telecommunications is treated as a commercial luxury rather than being a regulated essential service. It was because of their concerns that I introduced the Telecommunications Amendment (Guaranteeing Mobile Phone Services in Bushfire Zones) Bill in 2017, to compel telecommunication carriers to provide at least 24-hour stand-by power for phone towers in high-risk bushfire areas. I've not been backward in advocating for this legislation since that time. I note the National Party, when they had their federal conference last year, moved a motion calling for a 72-hour backup in all disaster-prone areas. I do not believe that 24 hours is a big stretch, as 72 hours is what the National Party were calling on. I ask the government to revisit my draft private member's bill simply because it will save lives.

I was advised by the minister that telcos have been encouraged to provide at least 12-hour battery backup, and I think that's a great start, but we do need legislative protection in this area—we don't have it now. I do welcome the government's announcement for round 4 of this program, but let's be clear: we do need round 5 and we do need round 6, because regional Australia should not miss out. When I do a drive from my part of the electorate, where I live, and go south I can drive for the best part of two hours and I'm still in my electorate, I will go in and out of mobile coverage many, many times during that drive. They are also the areas where we have a high risk of car accidents and many, many fatalities. Imagine the great trauma if you have a car accident and you pull up your mobile phone to try and get help from telecommunications, and there is not a single bar of service. You are vulnerable. You are helpless. I call on the government: round 4 is fantastic but, please, we need round 5 and we need round 6. Just because some of us live some distance from the GPO, we should not be forgotten. Thank you.

Lucy Wicks (Robertson, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to support the motion moved by the member for Forrest, which does acknowledge the importance of the coalition's Mobile Black Spot Program to rural and regional communities. It's a $220 million program that's already resulted in commitments to deliver 867 base stations around the nation, and hundreds of those are already operational.

Mobile coverage is an essential service for families today, for businesses, for students and for residents on the Central Coast. Since being elected the member for Robertson, I've had the opportunity to hear from and work with hundreds of local residents to fight for better mobile coverage for suburbs with little or no coverage. I'm really pleased that earlier rounds of the Mobile Black Spot Program saw suburbs such as Somersby, Mount White and Mangrove Mountain get access to improved coverage and, importantly, better access to emergency services as a result of this improved connectivity.

Round 2 of the program saw residents of Calga and Peats Ridge benefit from improved mobile coverage, and we switched on a new Optus mobile base station there in July. The new tower at Calga has enhanced coverage along Peats Ridge Road over hundreds of square kilometres. With its proximity to the M1, the tower is also expected to increase coverage for people travelling along the highway.

We've committed to also improving mobile coverage for residents in Spencer, Wendoree Park and Killcare as part of earlier rounds of the program, and we've been working closely with these communities and with service providers to ensure that these commitments are delivered. Wendoree Park will get access to better mobile coverage thanks to a new Telstra macro base station, expected to be completed next year. The Telstra macro base station is set to provide improved coverage to areas of Killcare, Killcare Heights, Hardys Bay and Wagstaffe, with the rollout expected to be completed in 2019.

As with many large and worthwhile projects, there are often a number of challenges and obstacles along the way. This is the case with the commitment we made for better mobile coverage for the community of Spencer. I've been working for many years on this issue with the residents of Spencer, and I would like to pay special tribute to Robyn Downham and Belinda Repton for their continued and fearsome advocacy on this issue. Under this program, we announced a new base station for Spencer being delivered by Optus, but I've recently been advised by Optus that there are a number of access issues for the site, resulting in delays. However, Optus also advises that it is working on an interim satellite solution to be delivered as soon as possible. I look forward to working with Optus and the Spencer community to see much-needed mobile coverage delivered for local residents, and I'll update the House on the progress.

Our Mobile Black Spot Program has already made a difference to so many communities in my electorate. That's why I'm delighted to see that this government has announced a fourth round of the Mobile Black Spot Program. We will invest a further $25 million to deliver round 4 of the program and will soon call for applications from carriers to be selected through a competitive process. I encourage local residents to raise any areas of concern with me, and I also call on the Central Coast Council to nominate local blackspot areas across the Central Coast.

But the coalition government's commitment to delivering better mobile coverage does not end here with this program. In 2016, we announced a $12 million investment to improve mobile coverage on the train line between Hornsby and Wyong. For the one in four residents of the Central Coast who commutes long distances each day either by train or by car on the M1 or the F3, this is an important commitment and one that we are working hard to deliver. I'm pleased to advise that the tender process is underway as we speak, and our hardworking commuters should start to experience some improved services by the end of the year.

While the coalition is delivering better mobile coverage across the nation, the contrast between this government and the previous government could not be clearer. The coalition has fixed 867 mobile blackspots; Labor, in their six years of government, fixed zero. The coalition has generated $680 million in investment to date; Labor generated zero. I'm proud to be part of a government that is committed to improving mobile coverage in rural and regional communities like mine, and I commend this motion to the House.

Susan Templeman (Macquarie, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As I drive the 35 minutes from my home to my office, there are three places that I know my mobile phone will drop out and, depending on the weather, another couple where it might. This is the reality for anyone who drives through the electorate of Macquarie, which encompasses the Blue Mountains and the Hawkesbury. We are not a regional area; we're a peri-urban area, 60-odd kays from the CBD, yet our coverage is appalling, and I have to say that the coalition's blackspot program has been disappointing for my electorate, to say the least. There are already 72 registered mobile blackspots for the Blue Mountains and the Hawkesbury, and only eight have been funded by the coalition.

As the government announced round 4 of the program, a recent ABC investigation found that almost one in six of the towers funded in round 1 of the program is not even operational. That's certainly the case in Macquarie where towers promised years ago—in St Albans, Grose Vale and Megalong Valley—aren't operational and construction of Yellow Rock hasn't even started. It's not the promised mobile phone towers that are the biggest worry, it's all the places that have been ignored. One of the places with no mobile signal is the Tennyson rural fire station. Here we have a state-of-the-art fire station but not a bar of mobile reception.

I'd ask the government: if you are not going to prioritise emergency services, what is your criteria? Wait a minute—we do know the answer to that. The criteria is whether you're a Liberal or National Party seat. That's what gets you to the top of the priority list, not an independent criteria to determine the priorities for communities around this country. There should be one process for all MPs to submit their list of black spots, not an in-tray for government MPs and an 'ignore tray' for non-government MPs.

The problems with a lack of mobile signal are exacerbated in a region like mine, where bushfires are a feature of every single summer. It's compounded by the installation of fibre to the node NBN. What will happen when the power goes down is that there will be hundreds of people who will have absolutely no communication—no mobile signal because they just don't have a mobile signal, and no landline because that's been taken away, and the power will go down on the fibre to the node and they'll have absolutely nothing.

Even in my own home, which is only a few metres from a major road, we don't get a mobile signal. I connect through my ADSL into my wi-fi, so when there's power I switch to that. But when the power goes down, even somewhere in a densely populated area, we get absolutely nothing. When FTTC comes in, that means entire streets through Winmalee right across the lower mountains, Mount Riverview—every suburb has black spots in the lower Blue Mountains, and FTTC won't help. These are the pragmatic realities we're going to face. We are in an area where we know we get bushfires, and when we do we know how important it is to communicate. I spend a lot of time communicating by landline with my son and, unfortunately, what we've found is mobile signals have deteriorated over the last few years. So people who had a signal a few years ago are finding that it isn't nearly as good.

Labor will prioritise community and emergency services needs over political objectives. The government said it would do that but it has not happened. We certainly won't be building sites like the coalition has that were going to be built anyway. Eighty per cent of the sites that were built went to coalition seats. That does not reflect the need. As to where this new money, the $25 million, has come from, it's the under-spend from the previous rounds. It is not new money. So I think it's about time people were pretty honest about this.

The other mistake that's been perpetrated is this idea that Labor has ignored this issue. In fact, we spent $250 million on backhaul. It's not a very sexy concept. Towers are much more interesting than backhaul. But backhaul is the stuff under the ground that links the mobile base stations, and none of these new ones would be able to work without backhaul. Our Regional Backbone Blackspots Program provided essential services. So Labor will continue to support people who need a mobile signal but do it way better than this government has.

Rowan Ramsey (Grey, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'm very pleased to hear the member for Macquarie make such an impassioned plea about mobile stations, and I'm sure we will hear before the next election about Labor's commitment to building more mobile stations in black spots. They never have before. Not one cent has ever come from a federal Labor government to fill up the black spots with mobile phone towers. The fact that she should even raise it in that manner bears some consideration. It's a great pleasure to speak on this motion from the member for Forrest. She and I came into parliament together and she and I both understand the importance of mobile phones in the modern world, and increasingly to our regionally based businesses, and that they be well connected to the world.

It's interesting that, once again, the member for Macquarie has spoken about the National Broadband Network. That network is often confused with the connectivity of the mobile phone network. They are not the same thing. They are not the same technologies. The NBN rollout, as far as I'm concerned, is going very well. In fact, Grey is 99 per cent enabled. As the previous Minister for Communications, Malcolm Turnbull, said, we will concentrate on those areas that have the worst connectivity first, and that's exactly what has been done.

Through the first three rounds of the mobile phone black spot program, there has been a total investment of more than $21 million into South Australia—$7 million from the Commonwealth—and 23 base stations have been funded thus far. On any kind of converter ratio, that's pretty good expenditure—$1 from the Commonwealth for $3 in total. But in fact this policy has not delivered for South Australia as it should have done because there was a complete lack of interest from the state government. In fact, 867 mobile facilities around Australia have been either built, commissioned or committed to under the three rounds thus far of the Mobile Black Spot Program, but, I'm sad to say, just 37 of those are in South Australia, and it is simply not the fault of the program.

The Weatherill government had plenty of money for trams, for opening bridges in the city down at Port Adelaide, and for O-Bahn extensions that didn't even receive the approval of Infrastructure Australia, but just about nothing—starvation rations—for the country. Other states vigorously pursued the investment that was available through the Mobile Black Spot Program, but the Weatherill team ignored the opportunity.

As I've said to the member for Macquarie, at the federal level, Labor was as bad or worse, because there was nothing, absolutely nothing, in six years. The Howard government had a commitment to building mobile base stations. There was nothing from Labor for six years. And then, with the return of the coalition to government in Canberra, we have seen 867 committed to. That's a pretty fair kind of record.

In South Australia, there have been only 37; I've touched on that already. I am pleased to have 23 of those. So I guess the lion's share of those are in Grey—though that's hardly surprising, as we cover over 90 per cent of the state—and we have received 14 of Telstra's 4G small services. So that's been a good outcome, inasmuch as we had been underdone in South Australia.

We have a new government in South Australia now, the Marshall government, and they have committed $10 million. This will make a substantial difference, and I have been out working with our communities.

The federal government is still committed. We're having round 4 of the black spots program, and we're having the review of the regional, rural and remote parts of Australia under the Australian Government Regional Telecommunications Review. I have asked for my local governments and constituents in Grey to identify a string of black spots. I have passed those canvassed results on to the telecommunications review and discussed my findings with the telcos. I've encouraged residents and businesses and organisations to engage with the telcos, and we will bring them up to speed.

I'm expecting the $10 million that is available from the state government to make an appreciable difference, but it is also time for us to push in this parliament for new commitments from the government—and from the opposition, for that matter—as we head towards the next election. There's so much more we can do. The rural Liberals that come to this parliament are lobbying hard for a new commitment from the government in front of the next election, and hopefully we can utilise some of the new technologies that are available as well.

Justine Keay (Braddon, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Forrest for bringing this very important motion to the parliament. And it's not all rainbows and butterflies, as the government would like to say. In my electorate, I have 110 identified black spots, and the government has only funded 12. Some of those towers have taken three years or longer, since they were announced by this government, to actually start any construction, and communities are waiting and waiting and waiting. Each day mobile phone coverage is becoming more important to regional communities, and each day this government's really doing nothing about it. It's important to emergency service providers, residents and many businesses. I have businesses in my electorate that cannot even use their EFTPOS machines because of their lack of mobile phone reception.

I know from my discussions with dairy processors, such as Fonterra and Lion, that improved connectivity is becoming critical for local dairy farmers. We've got so many dairy farmers who can't even pay their bills online until they get up at 3 am, when there is hardly anyone on the system. I know residents and visitors to King Island are frustrated at the lack of coverage, and I know those on the west coast of Tasmania are equally frustrated with the lack of coverage. I note the self-congratulations of those opposite on this program, but, by any objective measure, the coalition's delivery of the Mobile Black Spot Program has been unsatisfactory.

When I say less than satisfactory, that's not the conclusion of those on this side of the House; that was the independent finding of the Australian National Audit Office, which made that assessment of round 1. Let me remind the chamber what the Audit Office found. It found that the program had been blatantly politicised, with more than 80 per cent of the locations for new mobile phone towers announced in coalition electorates. For example, in round 1, the fire-prone Labor-held seat of area of McEwen received funding for one new tower and the reinstatement of another—just one. Compare that to New England, the former Deputy Prime Minister's seat, which, by some miracle, received 28 mobile base stations. But, putting the politicisation aside, the most damning audit finding of that round was that 25 per cent of the new mobile phone towers funded in round 1 provided no new or extended coverage. Clearly the No. 1 criterion for selection was politics, not community need.

It seems this government has learnt absolutely nothing from the Audit Office report. The coalition's latest round of funding—which, by the way, is recycled money, unspent in the previous round—now requires people to contact the local MP to report blackouts. But we don't really know how that's all going to work, do we? The government is still to release the details of this new scheme to assist people like us here in this parliament as to what to do when we get calls from our community. It does smell very much like another political stitch up, where the end process will be sandbagging marginal coalition seats in the lead up to the next election.

In my electorate of Braddon, the Mobile Black Spots Program has been marked by overpromising and underdelivering. In May 2016 my predecessor announced funding for towers at Yolla, Gunns Plains, Sulphur Creek and Devonport. The former member infamously said:

A re-elected Coalition government will immediately invite mobile network operators to bid for this new funding to provide coverage in the identified locations at the earliest opportunity.

The people of Sulphur Creek were that sick and tired of waiting that they launched their own community campaign to have a tower installed, and I was very proud to help them with that—and thank you to the people of Sulphur Creek. I got a lovely nine, 10 per cent swing from them at the by-election. Independent of this government, the community and Telstra were able to work together, and the service came online last month. That's nearly three years later. The people of Gunns Plains are also still waiting, with many businesses impacted. During the Braddon by-election, the coalition announced they expected Gunns Plains would be operational by the middle of next year—again, a three-year wait from announcement to delivery, and that is totally unacceptable.

In government, Labor invested $250 million towards the Regional Backbone Blackspots Program to support backhaul infrastructure in priority regional locations. Backhaul is an essential link in the mobile transmission network, and, without this investment, which those opposite like to ignore, the coalition's mobile base stations would not have been able to connect to the network. Labor will improve mobile communications for regional communities by allocating $25 million for a Better Mobile Services for Regional Australia policy. From this policy, in my electorate, Labor has announced we will work with the community, local and state governments and emergency service providers to build towers in the West Coast and Circular Head regions and King Island. We're going to build them from the bottom up, not from the top down. It's about the community telling us what they need, not us telling them. This side of the Chamber is committed to removing politics from the program and genuinely working with the community to improve mobile phone coverage. Labor's policy will be evidence based, not politics based, and I look forward to working with my local electorate to ensure that they receive the mobile phone coverage they deserve.

Julian Leeser (Berowra, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In 2018 mobile phone coverage is an absolute necessity. Families in my electorate of Berowra need it to stay in touch. Businesses need it to deliver a modern service to their customers. Students need it for their projects. But, particularly, in a beautiful area like Berowra, surrounded by bush, surrounded by the Hawkesbury River, with skinny roads that people can get stuck on, it is absolutely essential. Modern communications are a matter of safety, a matter of essential services and a matter of urgency, so it's a source of great frustration and distress when reception isn't available.

I've driven around with my local RFS through local mobile black spots, and I know many residents call my office to talk about this when they stand at the edge of their driveway with reception of only one bar. These are already isolated homes, isolated by distance and saddled with old technology. How do you call your kids, deliver to your clients or reach out to your loved ones without the appropriate infrastructure? Black spots are as unsafe as they are unfair.

This is the policy imperative for the government's Mobile Black Spot Program, which has already delivered one new mobile black spot tower to my community—with more to come. The base station at Sackville North, switched on in December 2017, has extended coverage in Sackville North, South Maroota, Maraylya and Forest Glen. The new service is especially welcome as these areas are prone to natural disasters, including bushfires. The Sackville North RFS captain, John Turnbull, has told me that the new tower has had an immediate impact and that residents are receiving significantly better mobile coverage, allowing them to better communicate with each other and with emergency services when in need. He told me, 'This black spot breakthrough helps residents and the RFS in the event of a bushfire.' The tower was a key election commitment, and I'm proud we delivered it. The community is now seeing its benefits.

Two more towers are on the way for Berowra, one in Brooklyn, near the Hawkesbury River, and the other at Crosslands Reserve, capturing the surrounding areas in the Berowra Valley and national park. Telstra advises me that the planning for both towers has commenced and that they're on track for completion in the second half of 2019.

Our record stands in stark contrast to Labor's, which invested a grand total of zero dollars into improving mobile phone coverage. Our record is 867 black spots fixed across Australia, Labor's is zero. At the last election, Labor failed to commit to continuing the rollouts, but under our government over 600 base stations have already been activated under the Mobile Black Spot Program and we know that they've already connected approximately 10,800 triple 0 emergency calls.

I'm not stopping here and our government is not stopping here. We have now opened nominations for another round of the Mobile Black Spot Program, which will invest $25 million to boost coverage in regional and remote areas. Now is the time for my constituents to contact my office and report any black spots that affect them. I'm committed to fighting for better coverage in Berowra. I know that there are problems in Arcadia, especially down on Bay Road and its side streets and the side streets off Cobar Road. I know there are problems in Fiddletown. I know that in Galston shopkeepers rely on wireless point-of-sale machines, but that their service is patchy at best. Galston residents know the feeling of missing a call that never came through, and they know that the poor coverage extends right down Knights Road, Radnor Road and Fishburns Road.

Poor phone reception has been a daily reality for Berowra residents for far too long. It means that basic tasks are impossible or disrupted at a moment's notice. It forces residents to build contingencies and workarounds in their everyday routines. It prevents hardworking families and businesses from getting on with the important things in their lives—staying in touch and working together.

I know telecommunication is one of the biggest issues in our community. Every day my office receives phone calls about this and every survey we've done confirms it. Every time I visit a school and ask pupils about it, all their hands go up in the air. That's why there are already three towers allocated to the Berowra community, why they've been needed so desperately and why they've been so gratefully welcomed. They show the government's commitment to delivering practical change to improve people's lives. I'm committed to fighting for more towers as part of the government's Mobile Black Spot Program. Today, I encourage all constituents in the Berowra electorate plagued by poor mobile reception to contact my office, to report the black spots that affect them and to tell their neighbours, friends and colleagues—to tell the parents at your schools and the families at your church—that this is a priority for our government and it's a priority for me.

So I say to Berowra residents: bring out the black spots! Bring them to me in my office, and we'll fight for them every day until we fix them as a key priority for the Berowra community. We know that Berowra is a beautiful place to live. We know it's not that far from the Sydney CBD, but we know that the unique topography of Berowra and its unique location in the northern corner of Sydney means that mobile telecommunication is not what it should be. I say to Berowra residents: bring out your black spots! Let me go out and fight hard for our community.

Warren Snowdon (Lingiari, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for External Territories) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Can I acknowledge the member for Berowra's contribution, and just say to him that I appreciate why he'd be asking the lovely burghers of Berowra to contact his office, given that 80 per cent of funding for black spots in the first three or four rounds went to coalition seats.

In my own electorate, there are 450 identified black spots—450, of which 20 have been funded. I've got 1.34 million square kilometres of the landmass of Australia in my electorate. Many are remote communities and Aboriginal communities, quite diverse, that don't have mobile coverage. Whilst I commend some of the initiatives that have been taken and some of the black spots that have been covered, it's worthwhile knowing that on top of the 25 per cent of all the towers constructed in round 1 they were in areas that already had mobile coverage.

In my own space, the execution of the program has gone so poorly it's believed one in six of the towers from round 1—we're now in round 4—are not even operational, such as those in my own electorate of Lingiari. For people living in Mount Leibig or on the cusp of the Simpson Desert at Apatula, or they might be living at Milyakburra in East Arnhem Land or in the Roper Gulf Region at Burunga—right across the Territory—we have black spots that need to be addressed. It's a matter of health and safety. It's not just a question of saying we need modern communications for commerce. These are real issues for people who live in remote parts of this country. Towers have often gone into tourist spots and roadhouses but, as usual, many remote communities have been left without.

That's left people wondering how to address this very important issue. We've seen a totally insufficient performance measurement and evaluation to check if the needs of community were being properly met and money was being well spent. There's been no proper planning or objective evaluation to determine whether the towers were needed or not. As a result state governments, like Victoria, pulled out. Labor will improve mobile communications from regional communities if we are successful at the next election, and we'll fund mobile services for regional Australia. We'll have a better mobile service for regional Australia policy that will co-fund another 50 new mobile base stations as well as other relevant technologies, such as small cells, repeaters and backhaul.

We've heard a lot from the government about how well they're doing. But I have to say to you, if you just drive a little way out of Alice Springs, on the Stuart Highway, you will find no mobile coverage. And that's led to a bit of innovation, which is well worth talking about in this debate. The Centre for Appropriate Technology, an Aboriginal organisation in Alice Springs, as the name describes, works around innovative engineering solutions and it's come up with some hotspot technology. They place a dish and a receiving station remotely. If you've got a mobile phone you can go to that remote station and, in the vicinity of the station, you can make mobile calls. That mobile technology, which has been developed by the Centre for Appropriate Technology in Alice Springs, will mean we'll now see hotspot dishes placed in strategic locations, across central Australia, largely funded by the Central Land Council in Alice Springs.

This is a local Aboriginal organisation, the Centre for Appropriate Technology, devising an engineering solution for what is a real problem and having a local Aboriginal organisation—in this case, the Central Land Council—pay for the placement of some of these pieces in strategic locations. But that does not cover the real problem here, that we've got huge black spot areas across to the north of Australia, in my own electorate, in particular. And I call on the government to do something reasonable for people in the bush. We hear a lot from—what do they call them?—the bush Liberals but we don't see a lot being delivered, and if they are being delivered they're in their electorates and not in the electorates of those who are the most needy.

If needs based funding were allocated, I wouldn't have a problem, because all of the black spots in my communities would be covered. But as it's not a needs based funding solution—it's based on the political imperatives of the government—we're seeing decisions made on political imperatives and opportunism, not on what's in the best interests of the community. I call on the government to rethink its Mobile Black Spot Program and make sure the people of my electorate are having their needs properly addressed.

Kevin Hogan (Page, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There being no further speakers, the debate is adjourned and the resumption of the debate will be made an order of the day for the next sitting.