Lisa Chesters (Bendigo, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I'm pleased to rise to speak on this motion because it gives me an opportunity to share with people and to talk about our government's plan for the universal outdoor mobile obligation.

Now I forgive those opposite if they've missed this, but this is a critical step that our government is taking to make sure every Australian has access to mobiles. It comes as no surprise to any of us that represent regional electorates that, right now, approximately 30 per cent of Australia's landmass receives outdoor mobile service—meaning 70 per cent don't. There are around five million square kilometres of Australia that are currently without coverage, where there is also no access to triple 0. This is today, in 2025. Despite all the advances of technology, this is where we're at.

Our government is the first government to be taking action. I'm actually genuinely talking about a universal outdoor mobile phone obligation. It is us talking about it, not the previous government who had 10 years to talk about it and act. Instead it has fallen to a Labor government to take action. The universal outdoor mobile obligation will enable, for the first time, baseline outdoor mobile connectivity across Australia. The UOMO will require Telstra, Optus and TPG to provide access to outdoor mobile, SMS and voice across Australia. They will be expected to leverage their existing mobile networks, as well as new low-Earth-orbit satellites, using direct-to-device technology.

The government is working to introduce legislation as soon as possible, subject to the development of the satellite network. The obligation will be expected to commence in late 2027. That is what we're doing. Within two years, we are saying that we hope to have, for the very first time in our country, the universal outdoor mobile obligation—not in a motion, not as chatter, not to be shut down by the Liberals in the coalition party room. It's a Labor government that is delivering. Our government is engaging closely and constructively with industry to develop the legislation and the plan for implementation. This reform is vital. It is a vital safety net for communities, as we have heard from the member for Leichhardt and the member for Bass, and even in areas of my own electorate. It will ensure that, all across Australia, people will have access to free calls to triple 0, not to mention the ability to do their day-to-day work. Introduction of the legislation sends a very clear message to the market that the government wants to see day-to-day services delivered in Australia, and we want strong and competitive markets to provide the best experience for end users.

This is just one of the many telecommunication messes that our government is cleaning up from the previous coalition government—the mess to the NBN. Far too many of our regional towns received fibre to the node, trying to rely on out-of-date, broken copper to receive communication and internet. It just didn't work. In my own electorate of Bendigo, our government is completing the job, rolling out more fibre to the curb as we speak, to ensure all of our households can connect to fast, reliable internet, critical for the businesses that might be on more urbanised streets and for schoolchildren and university students, as well as those who might be working from home. Let's also not forget the mess of the Mobile Black Spot Program rolled out by those opposite. It was clunky, it didn't improve connectivity and it was quite biased in where it was allocated. Whilst I acknowledge that we did receive some upgrades in my electorate during their time in government, it rarely actually increased coverage. That was what the Auditor-General's report found.

What we have done has started to improve that by doing our own audit to discover where the real black spots are. That will be the foundation of where we allocate future funding. There are so many programs that our government is rolling out to improve connectivity in the bush. From the pump to the on-farm scheme to improvements to the mobile black spot scheme to the universal obligation that I have outlined, our government is getting on with ensuring regions are connected.

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