Angie Bell (Moncrieff, Liberal National Party) Share this | Hansard source

It gives me great pleasure today to stand here in the Federation Chamber and talk about The next gen future: Inquiry into the deployment, adoption and application of 5G in Australia report. As a government member of the Standing Committee on Communications and the Arts, it gives me great pleasure to be here. Australia was among the first to get our hands on the next generation of mobile technology, with Telstra allowing public use of its 5G enabled wi-fi hotspots in my electorate of Moncrieff on the central Gold Coast. As a member in the pilot region for the rollout of 5G, I was pleased when, during the public hearings, the committee visited the Telstra 5G centre at Southport to witness and experience firsthand the benefits of 5G.

The major attribute of 5G is its latency capability. This means that there is no lag time between receiving the signal and the response from the technology it's being applied to. For example, I was able in that forum to show off my electorate to my colleagues by putting them in a mask that showed the iconic Kurrawa Surf Club at its best, complete with the breathtakingly beautiful Gold Coast coastline, the surg and the coffee shop—which is now open for business, can I just add. It was in 360 degrees and in full 3D. Kurrawa is one of the nine surf clubs in my electorate, and I would like to give a shout-out to them and thank them for the work that they do in the community. Also, Surfers Paradise surf club has undergone a renovation, and Trevor Hendy tells me that there are many programs that that club undertakes in the community. I digress, but I never miss an opportunity to sneak in a few comments about my community.

The committee experienced this 5G virtual reality tour. I talked about the first mask that was put on. We then put on another mask—and I see some of the committee member here today—and were instantly transformed into an elevator. We knew that our feet were firmly on concrete, but we were instantly transformed up to the 21st floor of a high-rise in Southport, where I could look over Southport, in the CBD of my electorate, and see the birds flying past and the cabs on the ground. There was actually a beam that came out of the lift that we were dared to walk on. This mask made it so real through 5G technology that the member for Chifley, the member for Lyne and I were a little bit frightened to actually walk out on the beam, because we felt that we were going to fall off the 21st floor and fall down to the bottom. There were a number of members who decided not to walk out on that beam; however, I was not one of those members of the committee—I did step out. I stepped off to the left of the beam, and I was instantly transformed to the ground floor. I opened my eyes and there I was back on the ground floor. It was very exciting, and it certainly opened my eyes—and my bravery—on that day to what 5G can deliver. It was a great day.

At the hearings on the Gold Coast we heard from many of my constituents on the Gold Coast, but we also heard from constituents in Adelaide, Melbourne, and Sydney. We also heard from Vodafone UK, who conducted the UK's very first live holographic call using 5G technology. The low latency and high speeds of 5G actually made it possible to produce a 3D holograph of someone who was more than 330 kilometres away. This technology could transform very many areas. It could transform the way that families stay in touch or the remote working experience. These things that I am talking about might seem like a novelty, but this technology could be applied to areas like education, health, sport, industry and many other areas. As a member of the Standing Committee on Employment, Education and Training, I was very excited to think about how this technology could be applied to rural and remote education and benefit, particularly, Indigenous communities around our great country. That's what really excites me.

The other thing that really excites me is jobs and how 5G could transform our economy into jobs. It not only has the capability to revolutionise those remote education outcomes but also has the ability to transform health, small business, industry, manufacturing, road safety, sport and the environment. But, most importantly, as I said, it has a role to play when it comes to creating Australian jobs, and those jobs of the future that we hear people talking about. And what are those jobs of the future? Well, 5G will create those jobs of the future through the technology, which is very, very exciting. It's going to revolutionise the way we do things in Australia. Indeed, we have an opportunity to be a world leader, to be a centre of 5G equipment component manufacturing. We've heard a lot about Australian manufacturers having a bit of a rebirth, and 5G is a great opportunity for our great country to go into the manufacturing of componentry for 5G technology. So there are definitely opportunities for start-ups to develop their ideas and to connect our nation through 5G.

Several organisations told the committee that 5G is essential if we're to be a global competitor in food and wine production, entertainment, automated vehicles and IT. You might ask how in food and wine production. It is all to do with the sensors and how 5G can pick up how much moisture is in the room and those sorts of things. It can automatically change the humidity in an environment, through its innovation and technology. That's very, very exciting.

5G builds on current 4G technology, which of course was built on 3G and 2G. As the title of the report says, it's the next gen future. But it does several things differently, from the radio waves to the equipment, handsets, infrastructure, and application. It will use multiple spectrum bands of radio waves, including bands in a higher frequency to those used for older generations of mobile phone technology. The different way of using spectrum bands means that new equipment and infrastructure are needed to transmit information using these radio waves.

Unfortunately, a vast amount of misinformation about the safety and impacts of 5G is out there in the community. The committee received a large amount of information from inquiry participants who were concerned over the deployment of 5G and asserted that 5G would have a detrimental impact on human health. I do, as did the chair and the committee, acknowledge their concerns and thank them for their contributions to the hearings and for their submissions. But I would like to make one thing very clear, and that is that the committee heard from several Australian government agencies and officials that 5G is in fact safe for humans. Due to the technological qualities of 5G, beam forming and network slicing and the multiple output technology involved in 5G, the amount of energy that is received is lower than 4G, which is lower than 3G, and it is safe. You get more exposure from a baby monitor or a microwave than you would from 5G technology. These concerns in the community have been influenced by misinformation about the technology. The technology is safe. I urge the public to be cautious of claims from anti-5G campaigns. These campaigns are generating unfounded fear and concern within the community.

The committee made 14 recommendations. I won't go through all of them, but they include, importantly, the speedy allocation of spectrum needed for 5G, which will improve market competition.

A division having been called in the House of Representatives

Sitting suspended from 17 : 00 to 17 : 09

Before the suspension, I was speaking about the committee's recommendations, which include the installation of multi-user infrastructure and conducting of 5G trials in rural and regional areas; the Australian government to encourage manufacturing of 5G infrastructure in Australia with potential partnerships with the United Kingdom, United States of America, New Zealand and Canada; the establishment of a 5G R&D innovation fund; better consultation between Australian government agencies and members of the community concerned about the deployment of 5G; and a focus on ensuring the ICT workforce is expanded and appropriately skilled by lifting apprenticeships and working with curriculum setters. So there are the jobs, jobs, jobs that I was speaking about earlier. 5G technology enables enhanced mobile broadband features like digital video streaming and browsing the internet and pages super quickly. But, in summary, there are huge productivity gains across the whole of the Australian economy that can be realised. 5G could have a very significant role in the reinvention of Australia's next generation post-COVID economy, in terms of innovation applied to business models in order to improve our domestic and international competitiveness and the future of our great, great country.

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