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

After six years of waiting, Mount Tomah will no longer be in line for a new mobile phone tower after the New South Wales and federal governments apparently gave approval for the project to be moved to somewhere near Dubbo. This is a project that was announced in the first rounds of mobile black spot funding. It's a slap in the face to the residents of Macquarie. It just got put in the too-hard basket. This is in spite of me working with the minister's office and Telstra to identify three alternative locations and ensuring they were talking to Blue Mountains City Council. But it turns out that the decision to move the tower had already been made.

Mount Tomah is a highly bushfire-prone area along the busy Bells Line of Road and a long way from services. People who live in Mount Wilson and Mount Irvine were also hoping to gain some benefit from the additional coverage. This area should absolutely be a priority for improved mobile reception.

I understand that there are also significant problems with the rollout of the Yellow Rock tower, with serious concerns that that project won't proceed. Let me remind you: Yellow Rock was badly hit by the 2013 Blue Mountains bushfire. With NBN coming, there'll be no landlines and mobile will be the only emergency communication.

I was of the belief that this program was above politics. How wrong I was! These towers must be reinstated and guaranteed to be constructed in the current term of this government, not some way off in la-la land.