Helen Haines (Indi, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

Every three years, the federal government conducts a regional telecommunications infrastructure review. Its purpose is simple: to assess the quality of phone and internet infrastructure and services across regional Australia. It assesses what's working, where the gaps are and what needs fixing. Poor phone and internet connection is one of the top issues I hear about from my constituents and one of the top issues I have worked on since I came to this parliament. So I thank the member for Mallee for this motion.

In Indi, we've made great progress delivering more than 65 new or upgraded mobile phone towers since 2013. That makes us the most successful electorate in Victoria, and that didn't happen by chance; that happened by solid, hard, consistent work. It's real progress, but there's so much more to be done. The federal government has a responsibility to ensure regional communities have access to stable, affordable high-speed telecommunications. Our regions simply cannot afford second-rate services. Poor telecommunications are a barrier to prosperity, a handbrake on productivity and create significant challenges for our communities in times of emergency.

In May last year, I was glad to welcome the Regional Telecommunications Independent Review Committee to Benalla, in my electorate. In the morning, mayors and CEOs from across Indi's nine local governments joined me for a roundtable discussion with the committee. We were able to share our concerns directly and robustly. Later in the day, a public meeting was held at the Benalla town hall, with more than 50 local people turning up to share their stories. One clear message emerged, and that is that there's a lot more to be done.

I was determined to make a submission that would meaningfully shift the dial and reflect what my community was saying. My submission to the review contained nine recommendations based on local experience and solid community input. My submission was informed by meetings of the Indi Telecommunications Advisory Group, a consultative group of nine local governments, telco representatives and community members—and a group that I pulled together following the great example from my predecessor, Cathy McGowan, who set up the same type of group. Time and time again, ITAG has shown that when we work together we get results.

When the regional telecommunications review report was published in late 2024, the recommendations reflected several of my own, which I was extremely glad to see. So I am now calling on the Albanese government to respond to that report and lay out its plan for the next three years. We can't wait until the next fire or flood to build resilience—we must act now.

A great local example is in Jamieson, where the STAND program supported the installation of a community energy node at the memorial hall. In an emergency, the hall can now offer satellite internet and power backup for several days. This keeps the community connected, long after the power goes out. My recommendation to the government is simple: replicate this model right across Australia.

Another key recommendation that I took to the election was the need for more generators and batteries to provide backup to mobile phone towers when the power goes out. I have put forward a policy, costed by the Parliamentary Budget Office, to install 24-hour power backup at mobile phone towers in high-bushfire-risk areas. I hope the government and the opposition will support this practical and cost-effective policy which the committee backed.

Affordability is another issue, and I simply don't accept that a regional internet tax is the price we must pay for living outside of the major cities. The regional internet tax comes in many forms. It's businesses that miss out on sales because EFTPOS machines drop out of connections; it's farmers forced to buy expensive signal boosters just so they can run the farm using modern technology; it's parents who struggle to work from home because the internet can't handle online meetings. This unfair burden falls onto regional Australians just because of where they live. It's not right, and I'm disappointed that affordability was not a focus of the government's review. I am encouraged, however, by the NBN's recent announcement that it will offer satellite internet at affordable rates to regional Australians. This is encouraging. It's a development I was glad to see, and I was glad to meet with NBN directly to discuss this promising development.

The government has a quality review before it, with robust recommendations that would make a real benefit to regional Australia. Implement these recommendations, make us safer and unlock significant economic potential and productivity gains. The government have been sitting on this review now for over six months, so it's time they stood up, responded and laid out their plan for regional telecommunications over this term of parliament, built on the solid progress made in the last three years and demonstrated that regional communities matter.

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