Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

Not quite disciplinary action—it depends on where the disciplinary action is coming from, Member for Nicholls. But we get the cold shoulder. We do. It takes guts, it takes bravery and it takes courage to cross the floor, and Kay did on this issue of the universal service obligation because she knew that the big monolith that is Telstra needed to be held to account.

Indeed, whether it's Telstra, whether it's the banks or whether it's Qantas, it is an obligation of government to hold them to account, because they service people and they certainly provide services for regional Australians, who don't always get the services that they need. I know Qantas has just stopped the flights from Wagga Wagga and Albury to Melbourne, and that's an issue. I'm glad, I must say, that the ACT and southern New South Wales manager, Chris Taylor, is only ever a phone call away. He's only ever a phone call away from me, but I'm a member of parliament, so they do take your calls. But not everybody has the ability to ring their go-to person to get help.

Labor is saying that this legislation is going to provide that much-needed universal outdoor mobile obligation. Good luck with that. I'll certainly be holding Labor members to account because I know, harking back to the first Mobile Black Spot Program that was provided straight after Labor won office, that the Minister for Communications ignored the advice of the department and directed the mobile towers to be built and to be funded to ensure that Labor-held seats were looked after. And that is not acceptable. It is not fair. It is not equitable. I don't know why a neighbouring electorate to Riverina, Eden-Monaro, held by Labor, received nine grants and Riverina received none—not one. It's not fair.

The Mobile Black Spot Program has to be, must be, should be a needs based program, because improving mobile coverage should be the very bottom line to making sure that farmers, on their headers and on their harvesters and on their sowers, can do the work, can access the markets, can access the price that might be available there for their grain or for getting their cattle and sheep to market or whatever the case might be. But there is only a limited window, and, unless you have that mobile coverage, you could be up the paddock and have to go all the way back to the farmhouse. That just doesn't work. It keeps them out of the market, and it's not right. Then you've got the people, like Aaron McCarthy, who need mobile coverage in case of an accident. I know that, out Ardlethan way, we had examples of farmers being forced to climb their silos just to get a signal. I heard the member for Macquarie going: 'If you can see the sky, you can get a signal. You should be able to get mobile coverage.' That is fantastic. That is welcome news.

I look forward not only to Labor talking about it in the parliament from their talking points that they've had handed to them by the Labor dirt unit—they're so prolific with these sorts of things—but to words being put into action, because regional Australia deserves it. Regional Australia is where the action is. We're paying the nation's bills, whether it's through mining and resources or whether it's through agriculture, growing the food and fibre to feed and clothe the nation, as in the member for Nicholls's electorate, in mine and in others besides. We're doing the hard yards, but we're not getting the benefit of mobile coverage across the board.

So here's the challenge. It's one thing to say it in the House of Representatives. It'll pass this chamber. We know that. It gets into the Senate, and no doubt there'll be some deals done. No doubt it'll pass there. Put Labor's words into action. For the sake of regional Australia, for the sake of remote Australia, and for the sake of equity, of fairness and of equality amongst country Australians that pay this nation's bills.

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