Andrew Gee (Calare, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

I support the Telecommunications Amendment (Enhancing Consumer Safeguards) Bill 2025 because I believe it can make a positive contribution towards holding telecommunications companies to account, and I think that aspect of it is supported. But I come from country Australia, and, in the Central West of New South Wales, mobile phone coverage is not what it should be. It is a serious problem for many of our local communities.

I get many, many pieces of correspondence, phone calls and emails, from our local constituents, who are very concerned about the state of mobile coverage, and my concern is that the Mobile Black Spot Program, which the Australian government has operated for a long time, is no longer fit for purpose, because it's not clearing up all of these black spots. I'll return to that in a moment. Here are just a few examples of some of the constituents who've written in to me to raise issues about poor coverage. Geoff has written in about poor mobile coverage at Mookerawa, not far from Stuart Town. Ross has written in about poor mobile phone coverage at Marrangaroo, which is near Lithgow. Ines raises coverage issues at Frog Rock and is very upset about what's happening there. It's poor coverage; it's not where it should be.

Ralph has written in about the lack of mobile coverage around Oberon. It is a serious problem around Oberon, especially around the Shooters Hill area and around Black Springs. I'm going to return to Black Springs in a moment. Judie out at Spicers Creek has issues with mobile connectivity out there. Ralph from Lyndhurst—again, there are serious issues of poor mobile service and reception around there. Then we have people like Julian, who's written in about the poor mobile coverage between Oberon and Bathurst. There are 'several blackspots on Telstra 4G', he writes, and he also points to areas like Wisemans Creek, Carlwood Road towards O'Connell and the area around the railway track in Rydal—and Rydal station itself. The coverage is not what it should be.

Dave from Arkell, in our area, has written in, and he says there's been a problem with phone reception since 3G was turned off. He said:

we used to have quite good reception until last October. Now reception is getting much worse even with a booster in the house. Essentially no reception most of the time or call last for maybe one minute.

I have contacted Telstra many times and got the big run around. they want to ring me back all the time and when we dont answer they cancel the whole complaint process. Well if we havent got reception how can we answer.

This is very frustrating … and means we have to go by car to another location to simply make a phone call.

How can we make some progress on improving this situation?

That's from David Rickards.

Clint Anderson writes about issues of connectivity and mobile reception around Lower Lewis Ponds and in the Banjo Paterson Way area. Chris from Rylstone—around Narrango Road in Rylstone—has complained to Telstra about poor reception since the 3G shutdown and, unfortunately, did not get the answers that he was looking for and that we were all looking for from Telstra. That's why I believe that the Mobile Black Spot Program really does need an overhaul. I think it's fair to say that the telcos have picked all of the low-hanging fruit from this program—that is, they put in bids for the locations from which they can make the most money. But all of those locations have now been taken, and their interest in this program is clearly waning. We're not getting the results from it.

There's a good example of this issue we've been having for a number of years at the village of Black Springs, which is not too far from Oberon. Telstra put in a bid a number of years ago for a small-cell tower to be placed at Black Springs, but, since then, it seems to me and the community that Telstra has been doing its level best to back out of actually delivering a small-cell tower at that site. We've had many, many conversations with the local community members and successive mayors of the local council out at Oberon, and I have to say we have been deeply unimpressed with the way that Telstra has handled this.

Telstra really needs to have a good look at the way that they are operating their community relations, because in the way this has come about there has been delay after delay. Every time a solution is brought to Telstra to address the reason that they say this tower can't be put there, another excuse is found. Now Oberon Council have come up with another location, which is opposite the location where Telstra originally wanted to set up the tower, and, again, Telstra are delaying actually getting a small-cell tower for the people of Black Springs. It is very, very frustrating for Mayor Andrew McKibbin and the team at Oberon Council, and it's very frustrating for me, because this saga has dragged on for far too long. But it highlights the problems that we are having with this program and with getting telcos to commit not only to honouring their commitments but to continuing to deliver for country communities.

Another good example is Shooters Hill, not too far from Black Springs, where the community has been fighting for mobile coverage for a long, long time. So I say to Telstra: you've really got to have a look at the way you're operating in these communities, because you're not winning any friends out there. A lot of us have misgivings about the way Black Springs has been handled. It does Telstra no credit. I urge the minister to have a look at the way the Mobile Black Spot Program funding is being rolled out. It needs to be made a lot more effective. Right around the Calare electorate, we have black spot after black spot everywhere you go, from places like the Castlereagh Highway between Lithgow and Mudgee to the Mitchell Highway heading into western NSW. From our larger communities to our smaller ones, mobile black spots abound.

Mobile connectivity is an essential service. We need it for business, for tourism, for emergencies and to keep our communities connected. Government has a really important role to play here, and our communities should not be forgotten. This is a fundamental issue of fairness and equality between city and country. City people take these services for granted. They forget that there are people out in the bush who are making extraordinary contributions to the wealth and prosperity of this country that are being overlooked for mobile connectivity. It's not fair, it's not right and it must be brought to a close. The way the government could do it would be to make the Mobile Black Spot Program a lot more effective.

I urge the government to have a really good, hard look at the program so that it better serves the needs of country Australia and the communities of central western NSW. I know I speak for everyone in our part of the world, where we demand proper access to mobile phone service and mobile connectivity. We're not getting that at the moment. You can put a lot of the blame at the feet of the telcos, but the government also has a very important role to play and, when programs are not effective enough, they need to be overhauled so that they serve the interests of our country communities. We demand nothing less.

Debate adjourned.

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