Fiona Nash (NSW, National Party, Deputy Leader of the Nationals) Share this | Hansard source

I will take the interjection from Senator Carr. Do you want to know how much money was spent on mobile phone black spots under Labor? Not one cent in six years, Senator Carr. I come back to the question. Senator Griff might like to hear the answer, unlike Senator Carr. Senator Griff, thank you for that question. Under the black spot program, you would be well aware round 1 was announced addressing 3,000 black spots of the 6,000 black spots that were identified as areas that need to be addressed. Four hundred and ninety-nine towers were addressing those 3,000 black spots under round 1. We do, obviously, need to have a period of time while those 499 are addressed. There is a rollout of towers obviously according to the telecommunications carriers that roll these out. I am aware, of course, that not all of those have been done to date and that there is a rolling time line. I am very happy to come back to the senator with an indication of timeliness for the specific towers, but I reiterate: it is this government that is investing $220 million into addressing the very real issue of mobile phone black spots. Again, as I indicated earlier, under six years of Labor government, not one cent was spent in regional Australia on mobile phone black spots. (Time expired)