Perin Davey (NSW, National Party, Shadow Minister for Water) Share this | Hansard source

I commend Senator Roberts's comments on this matter. This is a very serious matter, and what we heard from the minister just goes to show how much disregard the Labor Party actually has for the seriousness of this issue. Maybe they have such disregard because where this issue actually matters, where it really makes a difference, is—surprise, surprise—in regional areas.

But this is not something that happened yesterday or last night or even only as a result of the very thorough inquiry held by the committee. This is an issue that the Labor government was warned about as early as June last year, but also let me remind you that the telcos, Telstra and Optus, had given five-years notice. In June last year the Labor government was warned that there would be an issue with some 4G phones being unable to call 000. At that point in time, when that issue was made public, there were further investigations that went on, and rural and regional areas realised there would be issues with things like agricultural equipment—irrigators that send text messages to farmers to alert them when something is going wrong—medical devices and EFTPOS machines.

These were all raised by November last year, and what did we see from the Labor government? Crickets. Absolute crickets. It was only in March when again the issue of 000 calls was raised, which was heightened by the failing of Optus when they had the blackout to 000, and the risks were realised that the communications minister finally woke up and thought, 'Maybe we have a problem.' Congratulations! What was this government's solution? 'We'll cobble together an industry working group which will meet behind closed doors, not report publicly' and from which we've heard nothing from since. It is only thanks to this inquiry by the Senate Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport References Committee that a lot of the true issues are now coming to light. This government did nothing.

Telstra, of their own volition, in July, extended their shutdown to August, hoping that the increased publicity would actually activate people. Telstra and Optus now together, of their own volition, have agreed to extend the shutdowns to late October. Telstra, of their own volition, have sent compatible devices to their vulnerable customers living a certain distance away from a store and amenities so that those vulnerable customers are not at risk. And what is this government doing? It is saying, 'Hey, Telstra and Optus, while you're at it, can you run a public information campaign?' Seriously, this is a government that's willing to spend $14 million on false advertising about the Murray-Darling Basin Plan and $40 million advertising to people that they're getting a tax cut that has already past parliament, but it's not willing to try and help in a very serious public communications campaign to make sure people know the risks that they are facing.

I'm not just talking about being able to call 000. I'm seriously concerned about medical devices, the ETFPOS machines, the agricultural devices and, as we heard during the committee inquiry, the elevators. Can you imagine—we're stuck in an elevator in this place and we go to press the button, but we get a 'beep, beep, this phone has been disconnected.' It's not good enough by the Labor government. It's not good enough for the people of rural and regional Australia. More needs to be done, and we need a proper response to this Senate committee's very thorough report.