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

It's another sitting week and we have yet another negative motion being put forward by the member for Mallee. It's become a regular occurrence that the member for Mallee puts forward negativity after negativity. This is a bit of a rehash of an old motion that has no insight into and is no reflection on what her colleagues did when they were ministers and in government.

Let's just remind those opposite that privatisation and being market driven is now the reality for our telecommunications. If you want to switch back to a government owned service, that is going to take a lot of money. Those opposite may also forget that it was the Howard government that, with T1, T2 and T3, effectively privatised our telecommunications. That was the last time we had reliable communications in this country, with every house having a copper landline, as was the technology of the day. We lost the ability to control the market back when it was privatised under the Nationals and the Liberals during the Howard government.

What we have today is a patchwork market, which those opposite failed to do anything about in their nine years of government. Round after round of their Mobile Black Spot Program went through the Audit Office, which found it did not genuinely increase coverage for regional areas. In electorates like mine, a regional electorate, we might get one each term of the previous government. This did little or nothing to improve the coverage in my electorate.

Those opposite are criticising a roundtable, but I say to those opposite: you're so opposed to regulation, but this is what you need if you want to regulate a market to deliver service to everybody. The markets don't like to go to the regions. They need to build a tower, but if there aren't the customers, they're not going to build it. This is what telcos tell them and tell us all the time. The market isn't going to build a tower in Metcalfe in my electorate. There aren't the customers to sustain that investment. They turn around and say: 'What are you going to do?' The program doesn't work. It's clunky. This is why we've had roundtables—to bring people together to ask: What are the lessons? How can we make the market kinder? How can we adapt the market to deliver the services that we need?

This is also why we committed to an audit. This was a 2022 election commitment, which we are halfway through doing. It's been a longstanding concern of people in the regions that the telco coverage maps do not reflect the experience of mobile users. Every member in the regions has experienced this. We ourselves have experienced this. The map says we've got coverage out in Tarnagulla, but, when you get there, the coverage isn't there. The map says you have coverage in Tooborac, but, when you get there, it isn't there. Part of that is because each telco has its own metrics—its own way of measuring it. We are proposing to standardise it. We want to see all the telcos using the same set of measures. Those opposite are opposed to it. They say it's more red tape for the telcos. They want their cake and to eat it too. They are not genuinely interested in improving telecommunications in the regions. All they want to do is throw mud and throw stones.

We on this side of the House accept that it is a long-term challenge, and we are working to build the coverage. We genuinely believe on this side of the House that, regardless of where you live, you should have access to telecommunications. Our vision is absolutely clear: it is making Australia the most connected continent in the world, and we acknowledge we have a lot of work to do. That is why we're getting on with doing it. There is $1.1 billion going into the Better Connectivity Plan for Regional and Rural Australia. We are not going to let the telcos dictate to us where the investment will be. We want to see everybody having access to those devices, because that's how a lot of us access our lives. Currently, $55 million for the latest round, round 8, of the Black Spot Program is under assessment. We will improve coverage, as opposed to what those opposite did, with $50 million to improve telecommunications programs for our regional roads. Round 3 of the connectivity programs just awarded 274 projects. We've had successful rounds of the Farm Connectivity Program. The list goes on.

Then we get to what we're also doing, and it is our government, a Labor government, delivering this: the Universal Outdoor Mobile Obligation. It is this government, a Labor government, that will make this a requirement—not the Liberals and not the Nationals in the nine years they had in government, but a Labor government. Watch this space: outdoor mobile obligation under us.

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