Aaron Violi (Casey, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for the Digital Economy) Share this | Hansard source

To quote myself, Member for Bruce—that 'the difference between a working phone line can be life and death'. That was in reference to my experience during the Black Saturday bushfires and also the June storms of 2021 that hit my community. My family and I lived those disasters, as so many in our community did, and we lived firsthand the experience and the vulnerability you feel when you can't call for help, when you realise that you're alone and that if something had happened to the people you love there would be no-one to come and help you. There is no greater sense of helplessness, fear and frustration that you have than when you don't have the ability to call for help. That experience I've lived, and my family has lived, is lived by hundreds of thousands of people in our community every single day all across this country.

But I've also seen the other side of the equation. Twelve months ago, just before the election—on the eve, actually, of the last election—there was a car accident in front of my house. A gentleman unfortunately had gone straight into a tree. I and a couple of neighbours were looking to help get him out of the car as it looked like it might start burning. We were lucky that my neighbour's wife was able to call the emergency services. There is no greater sound in the world, when you are trying, with no expertise and no skills, to help someone get out of a car that might come alight, than the sound of those sirens that came to help that community member and to help us. So I want to pay tribute very quickly to the Coldstream CFA, the Lilydale CFA, the local SES, Ambulance Victoria and Victoria Police, who were all there. All of our emergency services turned out to help that accident victim, and that was because we were able to call for help.

But let's imagine another scenario. It's a scenario I haven't lived but which many in Australia have. Let's imagine you're in a regional town. You might be in the great Gippsland area, which is so well represented by the member for Gippsland; I'm sure there are roads like this in Gippsland. You are driving along, and you come across an accident. You've come across a car that's hit a tree. You pull out your phone, and you go to call the emergency services. You look at your phone, and there's no reception. You have no ability to call for help for that community member. You're left with a choice. If you're fortunate, you might have two people in the car, and one person could stay with that accident victim and do the best they can with what they've got, and the other person could drive to the nearest town or farmhouse and hope that they're home and they've got a landline, or hope that they come into reception.

The sad reality in 2026 in Australia is that that's happening every day. There's a fair chance that that's a lived experience of someone today in regional Australia. That is why it is so important that we make sure that we get this legislation right. That's before we even talk about the basic standard that people all across Australia deserve to be able to call their friends, their families and their loved ones. Isolation is a significant issue. If you're at home, living in regional Australia, rural Australia or even suburban Australia and outer urban areas like my electorate of Casey, and you can't call your friends, you do feel isolated. You feel alone whether there is a disaster or you just want to say hello and catch up with someone.

The intent is right. We absolutely want to provide coverage for everyone. But, unfortunately, like so many things that this government does, the intent might be good, but the delivery has to be there. The concern I have with this legislation is not with the legislation itself—as I said, the intent is there—but the minister who has carriage of this legislation has a track record of not being able to deliver when it comes to important legislation. We saw this minister, when they were the Minister for Aged Care, fail to support the aged-care industry and aged-care residents. They needed to be reshuffled across to communications. We've seen that failure when it came to the triple zero debacle and the 3G debacle. We've seen that with the social media ban—a big announcement. We saw them fly to New York and spend over $100,000 of taxpayer money for a five- or six-minute speech to claim all the glory of the legislation. Speak to any high-school kid, though. I've got a son in year 7, and he has said to me that all his mates are on social media. I still valiantly keep him off social media. Let's hope he actually listens to his dad.

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