Fiona Phillips (Gilmore, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Fixing the mobile black spots on the South Coast is a critical issue for people in my electorate. Mobile black spots along our highways are putting lives at risk. It's a fact. During the bushfires, hundreds of cars were stranded in these black spots with no means of communication. Once again, this past weekend, the Batemans Bay community has been rocked by another fatality on the Kings Highway, at Clyde Mountain. A neighbour was forced to wave down passing cars because she couldn't call for help. This is not good enough. This stretch of road is notorious, and we know the poor reception makes it more dangerous.

In 2018 the government said it would fix the mobile black spot on Clyde Mountain, but here we are in 2021, still waiting—promises are made and then broken. As late as October we were told it would be completed in the fourth quarter of 2020, only to be told in December that it would now be the first quarter of 2021. But how can we trust that?

The government needs to get serious about fixing the mobile black spot on the Clyde Mountain. We have had enough of the delays and the excuses. I again ask the minister: when can we expect this black spot to be fixed? Our community deserves the government's serious and immediate action to fix this problem now, before more lives are tragically lost.