David Moncrieff (Hughes, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

The Albanese Labor government was re-elected last year with a mandate to build Australia's future. Australia's future is a connected one. We inhabit a vast and ancient continent, but we live in a time when technology has drastically changed what distance can mean to us. In 1854 we had the first telegram line connect Sydney to Melbourne. In 1871 we had the first overseas telegram reach Australian shores. In the century and a half since that time, we have seen drastic changes to what telecommunications can bring to a modern society.

At Federation, there was no way that Australians could have imagined what low-Earth-orbit satellite direct-to-device technology would make possible. In 2026, access to telecommunications is no longer a luxury; it is an essential service that underpins public safety, economic participation and the need to stay connected to those we love. Australians rely on mobile phones for connectivity more than ever. However, Australia's longstanding universal service obligation has not included mobile services. We have legislated for copper phone lines and payphones, while the country has evolved to make the mobile phone the most essential device for everyday life.

On this side of the chamber, we believe in a simple principle: no-one held back and no-one left behind. That's why I am so supportive of the Telecommunications Legislation Amendment (Universal Outdoor Mobile Obligation) Bill 2025—because communities like those in my electorate of Hughes were left behind while those opposite were in office, especially in relation to telecommunications. While those opposite were in government, they tried to degrade everything that the National Broadband Network was meant to transform. They took a technology designed to connect every Australian with world-class fibre and watered it down. They chose cheaper, slower, inferior technology, and they called it good enough. It meant that communities like Bundeena and Maianbar in the Royal National Park in my electorate missed out on the connections that were changing lives all around the world as digital access changed the way that lives were lived and economies were grown.

When I'm out in the community listening to residents of Bundeena and Maianbar, I'm constantly hearing from them about how the lack of connection affects them. Bundeena and Maianbar are one road in, one road out. The road, which starts as Farnell Avenue and undergoes a couple of name changes before meeting Bundeena Drive, is single lane. It's winding and surrounded by dense bushland. These are dangerous roads for Bundeena and Maianbar residents to have to navigate at night. Residents and motorists need to know that, if trouble arises, they'll be able to get help—for a medical episode, a breakdown or a car that comes off the road in the dark. On that road right now, they may have no way to reach anyone if any of these emergencies arise. That's the quiet, daily reality for people in my community in Bundeena and Maianbar, and it's not good enough. These are communities that sit inside the boundaries of greater metropolitan Sydney. From my community, you can see the city, and yet, when it comes to mobile connectivity, they may as well be hundreds of kilometres from anywhere.

That's why, on this side of the House, we're introducing a universal outdoor mobile service obligation. For the first time, Telstra, Optus and TPG will be required to provide reasonable access to outdoor baseline mobile coverage across Australia on an equitable basis, starting with voice and SMS services, not just in the cities, not just in the suburbs but everywhere Australians live, work, drive and walk.

I spend a lot of time on Heathcote Road. It not only connects the two sides of my electorate; it connects the growing south-west of Sydney to the South Coast. But, for such an important artery, mobile reception on Heathcote Road is not where it needs to be in the 21st century. There are stretches where coverage disappears. If there's a breakdown, an accident or a medical emergency on Heathcote Road, there may be no way to call for help. It's not acceptable for a major road connecting two significant parts of New South Wales.

The Royal National Park sits at the heart of my electorate. It's one of the oldest national parks in the world and one of the most visited. On any given weekend, thousands of people from across Greater Sydney, people from across New South Wales and tourists from across the world are walking the coast track, enjoying the water at Garie Beach, riding trails through the scrub, kayaking through the estuary or simply sitting on a clifftop and watching the Tasman Sea. For most visitors, losing mobile coverage is not life threatening. For most people, it simply means more reason to focus on the incomparable nature the park presents. But, sometimes, it does matter—if a hiker slips on a wet sandstone ledge, a kayaker gets into trouble in a swell that came from nowhere or a trail runner takes a wrong turn and the light starts to fade. In those moments, the most connected generation in human history is suddenly and completely cut off from help. The visitor numbers are real, but they are spread across an enormous area, and the park's conservation status limits accessibility. This is market failure, and it's the kind of market failure that this government is seeking to address.

This bill is technology-neutral by design. Mobile operators will be expected to use a combination of their existing terrestrial infrastructure and new direct-to-device technology delivered by low-Earth-orbit satellites. The advent of new low-Earth-orbit satellites, or LEOSat, direct-to-device technology has made delivery of mobile coverage across Australia's vast inland areas possible. Within the next couple of years, the direct-to-device, or D2D, coverage will be able to provide baseline outdoor coverage in areas outside terrestrial coverage, allowing people to seek help if they are lost, injured or facing natural disasters in areas without traditional terrestrial mobile coverage. D2D uses satellites orbiting at around 550 kilometres above the Earth to communicate directly with a standard mobile handset without a tower, dish or base station at the user's end. It's just a phone and a view of the sky.

That means it works in a national park. It means it works on a winding road through dense bush and on a single-lane road into Bundeena at night. Telstra already has a commercial D2D SMS service operating in Australia today. Optus and TPG have announced their own plans. This technology exists, and it's being deployed right now. The question this bill answers is whether it reaches every Australian or only the ones who happen to be commercially convenient. Setting the obligation now is what will drive the market to build toward it. We want the industry to meet its obligations and provide appropriate coverage to all Australians.

A legislated obligation is only as strong as the framework that enforces it. That is why the standards, rules and benchmarks powers in this bill matter as much as the obligation itself. If the industry does not deliver quality services, the minister can act. If affordable products are not available for vulnerable Australians, there is a mechanism to require them. If planned outages are not being managed responsibly, there are levers that can be pulled. I want to acknowledge the 88 submissions made during public consultation on this bill. This bill did not come from nowhere. Those submissions came from mobile carriers, consumer groups, state and local governments and individual Australians. The breadth of that engagement reflects how deeply people across this country feel about connectivity as a basic expectation, not a commercial privilege. Consumer and community stakeholders were particularly clear. They want equitable access, and they want industry held to account if it isn't delivering. This bill gives the government the tools to do exactly that. The president of the National Farmers' Federation described this as a world-first policy and said Australia could become the 'gold standard for regional communications'.

This is not just about what the technology can do today; it's about building a framework that is flexible enough to capture whatever comes next. As D2D technology matures, as new services emerge and as the market evolves, this legislation evolves with it. We are not locking Australians into a single solution. We are locking Australia into a standard that every Australian everywhere deserves connection. Because voice services under the UOMO will be classified as public mobile telecommunications services, the existing Emergency Call Service Determination automatically applies. Wherever this bill delivers a voice call, it delivers access to triple zero—on a cliff in the Royal National Park, on a dark stretch of Heathcote Road and on the road into Bundeena. No additional legislation is required; it flows directly from this bill. Triple zero access across every outdoor location must be a core feature of this legislation in order for it to provide real certainty for all Australians in the event of an emergency.

The promise of connectivity is one that successive governments have made, but only this side has kept it. We told Australians that mobile phones would keep them connected. This has been true for most of us most of the time, but not for residents like those in Bundeena and Maianbar that are navigating a single lane road, not for hikers and trail runners in the Royal National Park, not for the thousands of commuters on Heathcote Road—who deserve the same coverage as any other major Sydney arterial—and not for the constituents of Hughes, who have held up phones and found nothing there. This bill starts keeping the promise properly, with a clear obligation and technology that can actually deliver it. This bill says that no Australian anywhere should look up, see the sky and find a phone call out of reach. To the people of Bundeena and Maianbar, to hikers in the Royal National Park, to the drivers of Heathcote Road and to every constituent in Hughes: this bill is about addressing your concerns and giving you peace of mind. I commend the bill to the House.

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