Rob Mitchell (McEwen, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

What an illuminating statement we received this morning from the member for Gilmore, who in raising this motion highlights the government's absolute failure to deliver telecommunications for regional communities. The member for Gilmore obviously must be on the outer in the government, because—seriously—if she is putting up this motion, they must really not like her very much, do they! They are making her come in here and put up a motion about an abject failure of this government. To congratulate itself on failing rural and regional communities just shows how desperate this government has become.

We know telecommunications is a very important issue. Mobile communications are crucial and potentially lifesaving for rural and regional communities—so much so that it was a central focus of the black spots program, the program that was scrapped in this year's budget but then brought back two weeks later in the middle of an election campaign just for political expedience. The report released last week by the Australian National Audit Office told us what we already knew living in the regions: this fizzer government has provided barely any new coverage for our communities.

It was a pork-barrelling exercise that failed to address the needs of rural and regional Australia. The program itself failed to meet its own criteria, and the Turnbull government has again failed on everything it touches in telecommunications. We have a PM with the reverse Midas touch: everything he touches does not turn to gold but goes elsewhere. It fails.

The government promised that the black spots program would improve mobile coverage in areas prone to natural disasters. Today they are touting the program as a success, yet my electorate is a stark example of how this did not occur, and our residents know a con when they see one. In our towns it is about safety. It is not about better reception to post selfies to Instagram or watching YouTube, which is what the member for Wentworth thinks is what people do with telecommunications; it is about making sure vital, lifesaving communications can give our communities the best chances of surviving disaster.

There were three criteria in this program: rural and regional, major transport routes, and areas prone to natural disaster. It is no secret that my seat has faced five major bushfires over the past six summers, including Black Saturday, the Mickleham-Kilmore fire and the Lancefield fire last year. We have many areas identified as being at the highest risk for bushfire in the state of Victoria. We understand in communities that no one source of communication can be relied on for bushfire warnings, but people in our towns do not have mobile phone access, they certainly do not have internet access, and television does not give up-to-date information—and let's not talk about what this government has done to community radio.

That is why we identified some 70 black spots in our areas, and this is where we talk about mobile black spots. We are talking about areas that have little to no reception at all. We are talking about people unable to receive the urgent emergency messages the CFA send out. In spite of all this, how many stations were allocated? Two. One of those was actually an upgrade of a decommissioned tower that had been out for 20 years and provided absolutely no coverage. In fact, the community put one of the biggest petitions in to say, 'Don't upgrade this tower; put it up on the hill where we can actually get better coverage for people who have been affected by bushfires.'

But there is this lack of consideration by the government, along with the disingenuous act of the member for Bradfield in removing the requirements for minimum coverage as part of this program. The government has been very quiet about that. It shows that this government is not interested in improving safety and connectivity to our regional communities. The drafted guidelines clearly included a requirement that 65 per cent of the coverage provided by a base had to be new coverage. The member for Bradfield, under the instruction of the current Prime Minister, took that language out of the program, to stop that.

So let's recap. We have seen 80 per cent of new base stations announced in coalition-held seats, with a solid handful in seats that they were desperately trying to electorally keep. We have seen a report confirm that this allocation meant that the program failed. It failed to improve access to communication for regional and periurban communities.

What we are about to face is another year of deadly bushfires, and this government should stop prioritising greasing its own wheels and start prioritising the safety and wellbeing of Australians. McEwen, which covers 4,592 square kilometres, as I said, is prone to natural disasters. We put in our submissions based on the criteria of the program by this government. But, in this context of the 500 towers announced in July 2015, 417 went to National-held seats and only two were allocated to an electorate which has seen the biggest natural disasters of modern times.

We asked how this could happen. We have sent many letters through to the government, and to date there has been no response. Ultimately this government ran a program—and I do not blame the telcos for what they did; I blame the government and the Prime Minister, when he was Minister for Communications, for establishing a program that puts dollars before life. As I have been saying for a long time, this program is broken, and the PM must recognise it and fix it now. (Time expired)

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