Jamie Chaffey (Parkes, National Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Agriculture) Share this | Hansard source

The lack of reliable telecommunications in regional Australia has created a very, very dangerous situation. The loss of the 3G network last year has plunged Albanese's forgotten Australians into further isolation, with many people left with no coverage at all. Anyone in this chamber, in Parliament House today or our loved ones could be driving along a regional road—let's say the Newell Highway, a critical route that connects Victoria with Queensland, transversing my own electorate, the federal seat of Parkes. Imagine something happened to you or your loved one while you were on that route and you were stranded beside the highway. In most areas outside the township along that critical highway, there is absolutely no reception. You or your loved one would have no way to call for help. You or your loved one would be at the mercy of other drivers passing by to help you. It is quite simply unacceptable. This would not happen to those who live in metropolitan areas like Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne and Perth. Or, if it did, it would be fixed in an Albanese flash. This is only one of the dangerous consequences of this situation.

As I connect with residents right across the 407,000 square kilometres of my electorate, they are constantly telling me of their frustrations trying to conduct a business, stay in touch with family and friends and feel secure in the fact that, if they need to, they can contact someone for urgent help. I heard only today from a business in Gilgandra that, when a purchase is made, staff need to stand outside in the street for the EFTPOS machine to work. Can you believe it? Communication devices do not work under steel roofs. Not only are phones and EFTPOS machines not working or working at limited levels, there are other consequences such as impacts on alarm systems and software that pinpoints your location in an emergency. Our critical regional organisations, such as the Country Women's Association and the National Farmers' Federation, continue to voice their frustrations with the problems caused by poor connectivity. The CWA has noted it impacts on basic activities like internet banking, accessing weather updates, distance education and business needs. Today, a representative of the CWA has said the organisation sent Telstra details of about a hundred cases of connectivity failure across New South Wales in March. They are yet to receive an answer and they continue to hear of problems from their membership.

The National Farmers' Federation have said connectivity is essential to the productivity, the sustainability and the liveability of Australians farming in regional communities. Results came out today of a survey carried out by the Land newspaper. The Land said they received 318 responses from people who say they are simply fed up. They're fed up with the poor standards of telecommunications, and it's going backwards. Respondents quoted that the major issues were safety, use of farm technology, health, connections with family and friends, the extra cost of boosters and even pest management. There were responses from people with health conditions who were afraid they would not be able to reach help in an emergency. People are carrying multiple SIM cards in their pocket. Phone calls are dropping out up to 15 times in 10 minutes.

In the world that regional people live in today, you cannot conduct a business, you cannot grow your farm, you cannot complete your education, you cannot make bookings, you cannot do your banking and you cannot even have your say on legislation without connectivity. The catastrophe of no communications that many regional Australians are facing could be prevented if the Albanese government simply cared enough to do something about it. These are regional people who pay the same or, sometimes, significantly more than Australians who live in the city for the privilege of telecommunications. It's not only dangerous; it's utterly disgraceful. It's time to switch the lights back on in regional Australia and to treat regional Australians with respect. The situation is not cheaper for regional Australia, it's not better and it's definitely not fair.

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