Michael Johnson (Ryan, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mobile phones are a very important and very popular device in our modern world. Everyone seems to have a mobile phone—whether one is a teenager or an adolescent, is in business or is elderly. Indeed, my mum has one, and she is certainly not technically inclined. All of us in the parliament have one. We see people walking down the street using their mobile phones. We see people all over the place using mobile phones. Mobile phones can also be lifesavers.

I want to draw the parliament’s attention to a very interesting point that I know the constituents of Ryan, in the western suburbs of Brisbane, which I have the great honour of representing here in the parliament, will be very interested to know. Some 12 million emergency calls are made every year. More than half are made from mobile phones. More than half of the 12 million emergency calls made every year are made from mobile phones. But apparently ACMA refuses to embrace the technology, which does exist, to pinpoint where the call is made from. I want to say to the officials at ACMA, to the government and to members opposite in particular—who are part of the government—that I would like their support. I think all of us in this country would benefit enormously from drawing ACMA’s attention to the technology, which exists, for it to implement a system where mobile phone calls to 000 can be pinpointed. Apparently some 85 per cent of the 10 million calls made annually do not have emergency content. They are accidental or spurious and many are malicious. At this stage they are unidentifiable calls. This would have an enormous impact on the efficiency and effectiveness of emergency services in saving lives.

I want to draw the House’s attention, and the attention of the constituents of Ryan, to a very interesting article that was in the Australian on 2 June. It was drawn to my attention by many of the residents in my electorate. It raised the idea of trying to get ACMA to acknowledge that it has the technology and the authority to act. Apparently, for whatever reason, it does not want to act.

I want to raise this scenario. Let us say you are a parent and your child was out partying one night or out camping and they made an emergency phone call to 000. At this time, we would not be able to pinpoint that emergency phone call from your son, your daughter, your neighbour, your mum or your dad. We could make a phone call from one of the beautiful parts of Queensland to 000 and say that we were in a crisis situation, that it was an emergency and that we needed assistance and, for whatever reason, the call might get through and then be blacked out. As at today, we could not track that call. We could not pinpoint where that call was made from. Plain common sense must come in here. Surely common sense would dictate that, if we had the technology, if we had the capacity to implement technically a system in our communications architecture so that a mobile phone call could be tracked and that could eventually save a life, we would do that.

I want to give my office number in the Ryan electorate and my email to anybody who is listening, certainly to those in the Ryan electorate, who might support this idea, because this is a campaign that I intend to wage very strongly until ACMA acts. This is something that should happen sooner rather than later. For the purposes of anybody either listening to the radio or watching Sky News, or anybody who has an interest and comes across this speech, my number in the Ryan electorate is Brisbane 07 3378 1599; my email is michael.johnson.MP@aph.gov.au. I encourage people to support this idea. Surely it is plain common sense. I represent the people of Ryan and I have done so with great honour and pleasure since 2001. I think that surely all of us would say it is a good idea for ACMA to support this initiative. (Time expired)