Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party, Shadow Minister for International Development and the Pacific) Share this | Hansard source

Just very briefly on that, and in response to the previous member: I fully concur and agree. You cannot place enough importance on the fact that mobile phone technology can be used to find missing persons—indeed, to find those people who may have been murdered and whose bodies may be buried in shallow graves somewhere in the regions. I can recall one such case: that of Stephanie Scott, a school teacher at Leeton High School, who was taken—abducted—and murdered. As to the perpetrator of this crime, the fact that we had mobile phone towers in the vicinity that were able to track the person's mobile phone meant we were able not only to identify that that person was involved but also, indeed, to find the body of Ms Scott. This was such a family tragedy, I can remember, for the entire Leeton community. Paul Mayton, the mayor at the time, led brilliantly.

But this mobile phone technology is so, so important. I commend the minister opposite for what she has done thus far, in visiting the Riverina electorate and the Central West.

I know we had a good record with rolling out mobile phone towers and installing 900 towers and funding more than 1,300 of them. But I would like to see the government continue this.

This bill, the Telecommunications Legislation Amendment (Information Disclosure, National Interest and Other Measures) Bill 2022—particularly the aspect of the bill I spoke of—is so important.

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