Barnaby Joyce (New England, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'd like to talk about how important the Mobile Black Spot Program has been. It is part and parcel of living in the 21st century that you must be able to pull a phone out of your pocket to contact help, to contact support, to call for more fuel on the farm or to call for repairs. I'm very proud that, in our area of New England, we have 37 new and upgraded mobile phone towers. When you go through the list, you get an understanding of how important this is, especially for the towns that have been left out. They are towns that live on the periphery of the everyday, towns such as Balala, between Uralla and Kingstown; Bonshaw; Drake; Dungowan; Hillgrove; Kings Plains; Rocky Creek; Urbenville; Walcha Road, which will be opening up in the next couple of days and is near where I grew up; Woolomin; Attunga; and Barraba. These are all incredibly important. We've been trying for a mobile phone tower for so long at Copeton Dam, where over 80,000 people go during the summer. We didn't have mobile phone reception, so if someone fell out of a boat or drowned or had any of those issues, there was no capacity for us to call for help. Now we're getting mobile phone towers going into Copeton Dam as well as Fig Tree Hill, which is also near Copeton Dam. It will give safe and secure coverage of that dam—so vitally important.

Senator Bridget McKenzie has announced the next round of this mobile phone upgrade, and this is also vitally important for towns that still need to be upgraded, such as Upper Horton. At Upper Horton, they have a rodeo on New Year's Eve, and, of course, they don't have mobile phone coverage, so if something goes wrong, how do they actually contact people? I'm really proud of the work that this government has done—the National Party and Liberal Party coalition—in providing money, through our time in government, for mobile phone coverage. It is one of the things that is so evident and that comes into your office. In country areas people say: 'What do I want? I need mobile phone coverage.' The market was unable to provide that and so there had to be a subsidy from the government to get these mobile phone towers built.

I was up in western Queensland the other day, and the fact that, under this government, there is now optic fibre that goes from Longreach right through to Birdsville has allowed that backhaul capacity for mobile phone towers in places such as Bedourie and Birdsville itself. You think, 'Why do you need a mobile phone tower at Birdsville?' When the Birdsville Races are on, over 5,000 people descend on that town, and for the rest of the year over 50,000 head of cattle go in the other direction, which means you have a lot of road trains. What happens when a road train breaks down or blows a tyre or has to turn around or has to pick up another load? This can cost thousands and thousands of dollars if we don't get it right, and mobile phone coverage is absolutely essential.

We have to drive ahead with this mobile phone package. A little village like Weabonga or other areas, such as the dropout spots between Mullaley and Gunnedah, all want to be able to arrive in the 21st century like the rest of the world has. It is amazing that people head up into the Himalayas and up Mount Everest and can get mobile phone coverage. They get mobile phone coverage most of the way. So if they can do it in Nepal, I think we can do it here. It is a vital segment of what a modern economy has to do. It has to go hand in glove with backhaul capacity—your backhaul capacity of optic fibre—so that, on your main lines, these mobile phones can be incorporated.

Of the 37 towers, we've had 27 installed and we have 10 to go. I'm looking forward to driving that forward. One that is very special to me—and I'm looking forward to actually being part of it—is the opening of the Walcha Road mobile phone tower. This was able to be constructed in conjunction with the bushfire services' radio reception. It basically allows people in that area to get coverage. It is so important that it can reach back up towards Woolomin and reach down towards Woolbrook. It shows that the government is not distant in Canberra; it is real and has capacity to deliver a better outcome and a better standard of living.

I commend the Mobile Black Spot Program, and I look forward to the next round. I'll be lobbying hard for even further delivery for my electorate, as I'm sure every member will be for theirs.

Brian Mitchell (Lyons, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I concur with the remarks of the member for New England. This is a good program—I know it's a program that the coalition introduced, but it's a good program. I was very sorry to see, in the last budget, that it was being axed but I'm pleased to see that, through some pressure from a number of members across the aisle, round 4 has been announced. As we all know, round 4 doesn't have quite as much in it as previous rounds; it's a grab bag of what was left over from previous rounds. I join with the member for New England, without a shadow of a doubt, and hope that there will be a round 5 under whoever forms the next government and the next budget after May.

This is a good program. It's needed in the regions. It's one of the biggest complaints that come into my office. The number of people who say that they still can't get mobile coverage in their community is still too high, so there is still a great need for this program. These are issues that my office deals with daily. Too many rural and regional communities across Tasmania still have no reliable mobile phone coverage. That immediately disadvantages them, isolates their communities and sometimes, frankly, places lives at risk. Some of the communities affected by black spots also endure unstable landline connections—part of being out in the bush is you've got the old copper degrading in the ground, so you've got no mobile coverage and a poor landline. That further disconnects rural and regional Tasmanians from the broader state, their friends and families and, importantly, emergency services.

Last week my office organised and hosted a community forum at the Woodsdale Museum in the south-east of my electorate, about 70 kilometres east of Hobart. About 30 people turned out, reflecting the depth of feeling—it's a relatively small community, so 30 people is a big show. They told my office that they are unable to use mobile phones at all, and, thanks to the ageing and inappropriately placed communications infrastructure, they are often not able to use landlines either. I'm pleased to report that Telstra has—fingers crossed!—dealt with the landlines by installing new equipment, but the lack of mobile phone coverage remains a key sticking point.

It's pretty hard, as the member for New England has stated, to make a commercial case for providing these services, which just goes to show that the market doesn't always know best. These people should not be told that, because telcos can't make a buck out of servicing them, they should all just go home and forget about it. That's the role of government; that's where government comes in. Where markets fail, government steps in. We could argue for hours about the merits and costs of the coalition's decision all those years ago to sell Telstra but let's not flog that horse today.

After hearing about the meeting in Woodsdale, Peter from Levendale, a hamlet south of Woodsdale, got in touch. His son, Ryan, often needs urgent medical care and treatment. Because of constant landline outages, Peter and his family need proper mobile phone coverage to ensure that they are able to access the services their son needs, when he needs them. It's a pretty simple ask: every Australian should have mobile phone access. At the Woodsdale forum, one woman spoke about her experience trying to renew her working-with-vulnerable-people check after running into difficulties with Service Tasmania because she did not have an operational mobile number—they simply could not get her at home. Not being able to renew this check meant she could no longer work in her chosen field and could no longer volunteer in the community she loved. Thankfully, this was resolved after an unnecessarily long process.

When it comes to communications infrastructure and connectivity, our regional communities are still missing out. Poor coverage segregates communities, prevents broader participation and is seriously concerning to the many people who understand the importance of being able to connect. Every day I hear about how crucial proper mobile coverage is to our regions and to people living in them. I hear of the risks that the absence of these services creates. I hear how not having mobile phone coverage affects people, families and communities.

Our rural and regional population deserves proper communications infrastructure, whether it's mobile phone coverage or NBN, and it needs to be a national priority that the regional communications infrastructure network is improved. Far too many Tasmanians and far too many of my constituents are not able to make a call or access communications services, even in matters of life and death, and that is simply not good enough. So I commend the government for backflipping on its budget decision, and I support this mobile phone program. Here's hoping it can continue.

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

To our mate over there, the member for New England, I'm pleased you're contributing to this debate and fulsomely supporting the government's position, which is good to see—not that I agree with it totally. I commend my colleague who's just spoken, the member for Lyons. We all express our support for the continuation beyond the budget fixation of this year, where it was no longer to be seen, and the reversal from the government in making sure that there is some ongoing funding available for this Mobile Black Spot Program.

I want to talk about my communities in the Northern Territory. I think the member for New England said he had seven or 17 places that still had black spots. Well, in my electorate, which is 1.34 million square kilometres, there are 450 of them, amongst the poorest and most remote communities in the country. Many of them just don't have access to mobile phone services, and that's a problem. There are those who were announced for funding as long ago as 2015 and are still waiting for the services to be put in place. I mention the community of Imanpa, which is 300 kays out of Alice Springs. They were announced for base station funding in 2015, and it has just recently come online. Two other communities, Finke and Mount Liebig, one to the south of Alice Springs and one to the north-west of Alice Springs, were both announced for funding in 2015 and are still waiting to have those base stations put in. Last year the residents of Christmas Island were without internet and had limited mobile services while waiting for the installation of the NBN Sky Muster service.

It's very hard to explain to people who live in metropolitan areas the importance of having mobile services in remote locations. When you've got them, you take them for granted. When you haven't got them, you want them and you need them. If you drive up and down the length of the Stuart Highway from the South Australian border—or, indeed, go to Adelaide—to Darwin, there are many spots along that highway where you can't get mobile services. That's important for, obviously, health and safety reasons and road safety in particular.

It's a pity that this is only a five-minute slot, because I want to commend a local response to this program coming out of the Centre for Appropriate Technology, an Aboriginal owned organisation, which has developed what I will call 'listening posts'. These are dishes which are put in strategic locations where, if you drive up to them and take out your mobile phone, you can actually use your mobile phone. This is not part of the Mobile Black Spot Program. This is part of a process of providing connectivity to people who drive long distances to and from remote communities.

I'll give you an example of a community which is located 500 kilometres west of Alice Springs, Kintore. It's currently 300 kilometres from its nearest mobile phone service at Papunya. Think about it: you're driving the road from Papunya to Kintore and something happens. Unless you've got a satellite phone, which most people don't, how are you supposed to make contact? Thankfully, Mount Liebig, which is about 170 kilometres from Kintore, will get mobile phone service in the near future. Can you imagine any other state in Australia where you could be 170 to 300 kilometres away from a mobile service? That would mean in Victoria, if you were 170 kays from Melbourne, the nearest mobile service would be Shepparton. You could imagine how that would not be tolerated.

We have got a huge problem here, and I don't think the government has really come to terms with the depth of the problem or the extent of it and the needs of remote Australians. There is a challenge here for all of us: we've got to appreciate the difficulty for people who live in rural and remote parts of Australia, whether they're in remote communities, on pastoral leases or just travelling through and what this means if you don't get access to mobile phones. As I say, this is an important thing for us all to take note of, and I encourage the government to think far more carefully about the continuation of this program into the future.

Sharon Bird (Cunningham, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the chamber for the opportunity to make a few comments in this debate. It is the case that we're having this conversation in the context of the most recent round, round 4, of the Mobile Black Spot Program having closed just last week. I have taken the opportunity to put submissions in to that website and also to write directly to the minister about the issues in my electorate, and I appreciate the opportunity to do that.

It is the case, in particular in my area, that there are a number of transport routes. Several members have talked about the safety issue and having more remote areas or major transport corridors able to have mobile access. In putting that submission together, I surveyed my electorate and hundreds of people responded, and I want to acknowledge the time they took to give me the feedback. Not all of my electorate is eligible, but there was excellent feedback for the areas that I was able to put forward. I particularly want to report to the Chamber, on behalf of all of those constituents, the transport corridors that need focus—in particular, the South Coast rail line. There are a lot of people who commute from my region into Sydney. One of the things that makes a long and tiring commuting life bearable is to be able to knock off some of the work related or even personal things—banking and those sorts of things—that you might need to do on the train while you're travelling home so that, once you get home, you can actually spend some quality time with your family. Between Thirroul and Helensburgh on the South Coast line, the mobile service just completely drops out, and people on that commute are without mobile phone coverage for a very extended period of time.

The government did contribute towards a new base station at Coalcliff, which would help alleviate that problem on that line, in round 1 of this particular program. That was in 2015. The other week I joined my two state colleagues, Ryan Park and Paul Scully, to call on the New South Wales government to get on with finding a solution on where to base that base station. We're now up to round 4 and they still haven't resolved the positioning of a base station from round 1 that's very important to a major commuter corridor. We've written to the state minister asking him to meet with Telstra urgently and get a resolution to that particular one.

There's also the Picton Road. It's a major road connecting my region, particularly running up to Sydney or down to Canberra. It's very heavily used. With the member for Keira, Ryan Park, I have raised that on behalf of a constituent who spoke to us, Mrs Hayette Hanna. She lost her sister on that road. At the time that fatal accident occurred, they were unable to get mobile phone coverage. In an earlier round, there was a base station funded on that road, which I'm hoping will be resolved soon. But there are still a number of other black spots, so I've submitted for those. The Appin Road is a similar experience, heading into south-western Sydney from my region, so we've included that.

I want to finish up by really speaking out in this parliament on behalf of some constituents at Darkes Forest. Darkes Forest is a fairly small community at the very north of my electorate in very heavily-wooded, national-park-type area. The people of Darkes Forest have been struggling not only with mobile phone coverage; when we lost government, they went off a fibre based broadband solution. They're on satellite, and that's been an extremely frustrating for process for them. Mr Ian Coote, who runs a small business in that area, wrote to me the other week, and we're following up on his behalf. We've submitted Darkes Forest as a black spot under this particular round of the program, and we'll work to try to get a better resolution of the broadband services into those areas as well. I put on the public record for the minister and the government that I'm very, very keen to see these issues resolved in the current round of the black spot program.

John McVeigh (Groom, Liberal 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.