Madeleine King (Brand, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Trade) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Today I would like to talk about the unacceptable mobile phone coverage in my electorate of Brand, particularly in the suburbs of Safety Bay and Baldivis. Constituents from all around my electorate are getting in touch with my office about this inadequate coverage. Many of them cannot get a mobile phone service from inside their very own homes. People are worried about their ability to reach emergency services, and business owners relying on EFTPOS are unable to maintain a steady connection, while many others are simply sick of having to leave the house to make a phone call. I share their frustration daily, having to deal with the same poor reception in my electorate office in Rockingham and with the NBN constantly dropping out in my home in Shoalwater. It simply isn't good enough.

Over the last year and a half, with the spread of COVID-19, we've become increasingly reliant on our phones, not only to remain connected with others but to continue living our everyday lives, including working and schooling from home. Many isolated vulnerable people spent past lockdowns unable to call or text others from their own home. As well as COVID-19, people within my electorate faced the danger of bushfires. Again, they rely on being able to access emergency services should they need to, and they need that mobile phone reception to do exactly that.

After repeatedly reaching out to her service provider and getting nowhere, Beth Phillips of Safety Bay took matters into her own hands. Beth organised a petition calling for greater mobile phone coverage in Safety Bay, and this petition received over 230 signatures. They went door to door, talking with local residents about their concerns, and got 230 other residents to sign up to a petition to fix their mobile phone coverage. After meeting with Beth, my office presented this petition to Telstra, who admitted the gap in their service. They say they have investigated the issue previously, but the project has since stalled. Again, this is simply not good enough. Telstra—along with the other major carriers, Optus and Vodafone—at the very least owe their customers a usable product. They take people's money. People pay for their mobile phone service, but they are not getting the service. This is unacceptable for the residents of Safety Bay and Baldivis and equally for anyone around this country who can't get mobile phone reception.

In an effort to keep Telstra accountable and to advocate for all of my constituents, my office has set up a petition on my website calling for better reception across the whole of the electorate. I urge anyone across Brand, whether from Safety Bay, Shoalwater, Waikiki, Warnbro, Baldivis, Kwinana, North Parmelia, Orelia or Medina: if you are suffering from poor mobile reception, please get in touch and sign my petition at madeleineking.com.au. You should have good, or at least adequate, mobile phone reception across all of Brand. If you don't have it, get in touch. We will change this, and I will fight for you to have good mobile phone reception.