Bridget McKenzie (Victoria, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise tonight to make a very short contribution as a result of a visit to the great Goulburn Valley—the centre of Victorian's fruit growing and fruit processing area—at the request of the National Party candidate at the state election, Greg Barr, who wanted to highlight the mobile black spot issues around the Goulburn Valley and the importance of appropriate mobile and telecommunications services for people in the small towns to ensure that they can participate in the economic and social life that new technologies can provide, particularly for those who have not yet had full access who want to take advantage of all that telecommunications can bring to a community.

Mr Barr took me to Katandra West, about 25 kilometres out of Shepparton, a community of 747 people. We met at the Katandra West General Store, where the owners Leanne and Brian Ireland convened a community meeting with a range of people who explained the issues they were having accessing adequate mobile phone services. Indeed, they told us how, when school is over, all the young people line up at a particular place on the footpath because that is where their mobile phones receive a signal. The community presented me with a petition. Out of a community of 747 people, well over 200 people signed the petition, which I will be happy to take to the parliamentary secretary in charge of the rolling out the $100 million Black Spot Program which will ensure that over 300 mobile phone towers are located right around regional Australia. Katandra West has an NBN tower, but when rolling out that project we did not think of co-locating various technologies on the towers. That is part of the review which the coalition government is doing.

We also went to the little town of Wunghnu where we met some truckies in the truck spot who spoke of the difficulties they have in accessing mobile telecommunications throughout the electorate of Shepparton and, indeed, the safety difficulties they have—if they blew a tyre or something was wrong with their truck—when they need to contact roadside assistance.

The coalition committed $100 million to the Black Spot Program as a result of work done by assistant minister Luke Hartsuyker, when he was a shadow minister, recognising that it is great to wait 10 years for some broadband but people out of the regions really need access to mobile communications, not just for economic and social issues but also to ensure that emergency services can be contacted and safety issues can be dealt with. It is in stark contrast to Labor's investment in rural and regional Australia. One thing you can say about those opposite is that they were very consistent. They consistently forgot about rural and regional Australia and indeed about the impact of their decisions and their policies on the 27 per cent of Australians who live outside capital cities.

Our $100 million Black Spot Program, which is expected to generate 250 to 300 new or upgraded mobile base stations right around Australia, is well underway. Unlike the former government, we have consulted with communities and are now assessing their submissions and conducting further consultation. The parliamentary secretary has been throughout regional Victoria to Berrigan and Dumbalk, to name a couple of towns, and I know Ed Handley and Adrian Harris down in Dumbalk have been very loud about the need for better mobile telecommunications, particularly for the Mirboo North-Dumbalk community in South Gippsland.

The parliamentary secretary and the government welcome the additional investment in this area by the Victoria state government. It is one of the things candidate Greg Barr talked about during our visit. The Victorian state government has pledged an additional $40 million which, with our money, will ensure that regional Victorians can have the full benefit of this program.

I would like to congratulate the candidate Greg Barr on his proactive approach, ensuring that the needs of his community are raised and that federal and state governments work together to ensure better outcomes for communities. I would also like to congratulate communities right throughout regional Victoria who have participated in the coalition government's consultative process. We look forward to making the decisions to allocating money in the early part of 2015, rolling out the program right across regional Australia in the second half of 2015. I know some 15-year-olds for whom that cannot come quickly enough. I congratulate the parliamentary secretary and look forward to catching up with him this week to present him with the petition from Katandra West and from the other communities right across the Goulburn Valley.