Susan Templeman (Macquarie, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

For the past 15 years, I have worked hard to improve the connectivity for the community of Macquarie. This region might only be 75 to 100 kilometres from the centre of Sydney, but you can find yourself in remote and rugged country. In many places, even those that appear to be quite suburban, you might be outside the reach of mobile coverage. I'm very pleased to say that it's improving, thanks to much better mobile phone tower coverage, but the gaps remain in places where it's really difficult to put a string of mobile towers. When you've got fire or you've got flooding, an obligation by a telecommunications provider to provide you with a landline really doesn't cut it, but that's what the current situation is.

Among the members of this House, there are those of us who remember when the original universal service obligation came in—in 1991. I remember this because I was actually working for Telecom at the time. The Hawke government initiated reforms that ensured that Telecom, now Telstra, was required to provide voice services and payphones to all Australians, regardless of their location. That was part of broader national carrier responsibilities they had, as competition came to this sector. There was more done to really cement the universal service obligation, under Richard Alston in 1999. Good work was done then. But a lot has changed, and having a landline is not the thing that gives you peace of mind and comfort. In fact, I've heard members in this House comment on the quality of landlines. It is very clear that the quality has deteriorated significantly over the years and that it just isn't enough to say to people, 'You're guaranteed to have a landline; that's going to do it for you'.

So, as always, the Albanese Labor government is dragging something from the last century into this century—dragging it into the 21st century and setting it up to see us through for many years to come, with a piece of legislation that says that, no matter where you are in Australia, if you can see the sky, you should be able to make a phone call or send a text message. I'm not talking about uploading to TikTok or being able to necessarily jump on TripAdvisor and tell everyone what the view is. What we're talking about are those emergency and important times when you need to make a voice connection or get a message through. I've certainly personally experienced those times when my community was on fire and my street needed to be able to text each other and find out where our kids were or who was able to give someone a lift out of an area that was about to be hit. It's so vitally important that in these times of crisis you have a reliable message or voice service, and that's what this will do. The Telecommunications Legislation Amendment (Universal Outdoor Mobile Obligation) Bill 2025—very catchily known as UOMO—is going to change what we think about in emergencies as the bill rolls out. Whether you're between the mobile phone towers on the Putty Road in Macquarie, hiking down in the Kanimbla Valley or on horseback in the Upper Macdonald valley, it will be comforting and potentially life-saving to know that you'll be able to dial triple zero from your mobile.

I think the community and governments have already worked out that providing this universal coverage is not viable with mobile phone towers. It just isn't possible to put mobile phone towers everywhere that you need them, particularly in rugged country like mine, world heritage country, where there are tall mountains and low valleys and it's very hard for those signals to transmit. Having said that, we've made a significant difference, including towers like Mount Tomah, upgrades at Colo Heights and Bilpin and the towers in Yellow Rock, Hawkesbury Heights, Maraylya and Megalong Valley. All of these towers are making a difference, allowing people to maintain communication as they go about their day. But what the UOMO means is that when you're not in your normal place but you need communication you will have it.

I've heard people talk a lot about how much we rely on telecommunications to support our families, our businesses and our communities, but I really want to focus on the bit when you need to seek help in an emergency. These are the calls you might not ever want to make, like when you are in one of the valleys and you've lost your way. The traditional mobile coverage currently provides about 99 per cent coverage where Australians work and live, but it actually only covers one-third of the landmass. There is a big area where you can't currently make a triple zero call using traditional mobile services.

The big question is: how will this work? It is only possible thanks to the improvement of technology and the low-Earth-orbit satellites, the LEOsats, which now move around our globe. What we heard from people is that they want to be able to access whatever technology there is that allows the function of being able to dial triple zero or make a call to another point of contact when things are difficult. The UOMO legislation requires the mobile network operators—Telstra, TPG, Optus—to provide universal baseline outdoor mobile coverage where reasonably possible. It's anticipated that they will do this via a combination of terrestrial and new direct-to-device technology available from the low-Earth-orbit satellites, the LEOsats.

We should be really clear that this is not about replacing traditional mobile coverage. It's about expanding the coverage to areas where, despite significant industry and government co-investment, it hasn't been feasible to provide mobile coverage. The direct-to-device technology, known as D2D, is an emerging technology and is still being rolled out in Australia and around the world. What we're legislating now is to ensure that this critical new technology is widely available and deployed as quickly as possible to ensure Australians can benefit from it. Given the emerging nature of D2D technology, this bill sets the default date for the commencement of the Universal Outdoor Mobile Obligation as 1 December 2027. I know from the conversations that I've had with the telcos that they realise they've got a lot of work to do to have the technology ready by that date. While they will be working hard at it, this bill does allow for flexibility to adjust the date to accommodate market readiness. This timing, while it is challenging, is sending a really clear signal to the market on what we see as the importance of equitable and accessible outdoor mobile coverage. It tells the market very clearly that this is a priority for the Albanese Labor government. It's a priority that these services be available to people as soon as possible. We're not sitting around just waiting for the issue to fix itself and for technology to catch up. We are acting early to make sure that Australia is at the forefront of this technology.

The legislation brings mobile services into this longstanding universal services obligation regime that I mentioned earlier. It previously only covered legacy copper based voice services. I might reflect that perhaps changes could have been made to this some time ago, but, by doing this now, we're also creating a framework that can protect consumers and ensure mobile services if the industry doesn't deliver in the national interest.

I want to point out that support for this has come from many organisations but, in particular, in my electorate, the farmers. I want to refer to the National Farmers' Federation's views about this. The NFF president, Hamish McIntyre, said the legislation has the 'potential to redraw' the mobile coverage map. He said:

Getting this bill into Parliament is a big moment. For too long, farmers and people in the bush have been on the wrong side of the digital divide.

I know that there are people in Macquarie who recognise that they have not enjoyed the benefits in the same way that people a few kilometres down the road have.

We know, when we live in wild places like the Blue Mountains and the Hawkesbury, when we choose to live in the middle of World Heritage, there are choices that we make, but making a phone call in an emergency is something that I believe everybody should have the right to do. So this is a real game changer for people for when they're doing their adventure travelling through the canyons and the tracks of the Blue Mountains. When they're out with family on camping holidays and adventures, it will give another degree of safety. So I'm keen to see this as soon as is practicable by the industry. This legislation does send them a very strong signal about how quickly we'd like to see it.

The UOMO is a critical part of our comprehensive work to reduce the digital divide, increase productivity, support economic growth and meet Australia's growing demand for data and seamless connectivity. I know a decade ago it was almost impossible to work from home in many parts of my electorate because of the quality of ADSL. The NBN, as it came online, improved that, step by step. The increase in fibre to the home has been a game changer for people in the Blue Mountains and Hawkesbury in being able to run their businesses effectively and successfully from home. I know I tried to do it in the early 2000 with dial-up, followed quickly by the first version of ADSL. It was hard as a small business having to manage that communication side and the volume of material that you could send. So I look back on those days and see how far we have come, particularly thanks to the NBN and the expansion of the mobile phone towers that I fought for for so many years. This is the next step—to make sure that, when people go outdoors into the wild almost anywhere in Australia, if they can see the sky they can make a voice or text call. Our vision is absolutely clear. This is about making Australia the most connected continent in the world. I'm very pleased to support this legislation as a key part of bringing telecommunications law into the 21st century and beyond.

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