Jamie Briggs (Mayo, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to present petitions from two parts of my electorate, Yankallila district and Gumeracha district, in relation to the Rudd government’s complete disregard for their right to have television services after 2013. The first petition is from the Yankalilla district.

The petition read as follows—

To the Honourable the Speaker and Members of the House of Representatives

This petition of Yankalilla district residents and certain citizens of Australia

draws to the attention of the House concerns about the switchover to digital television expected to take place in 2013. The Yankalilla region currently has limited digital signal and poor analog reception. Under these circumstances and with the lack of information regarding blackspot funding, residents are concerned they will not receive an upgrade to digital television and will be left without television.

We therefore ask the House to consider urgent funding for an upgrade to digital television in the Yankalilla area and a guarantee from the Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy that the residents of the district will receive digital television.

from 712 citizens

Petition received.

The second petition is from the Gumeracha district.

The petition read as follows—

To the Honourable the Speaker and members of the House of Representatives

This petition of Gumeracha district residents and certain citizens of Australia

draws to the attention of the House concerns about the switchover to digital television expected to take place in 2013. The Gumeracha region currently has limited digital signal and poor analogue reception. Under these circumstances and with the lack of information regarding blackspot funding, residents are concerned they will not receive an upgrade to digital television and will be left without television.

We therefore ask the House to consider urgent funding for an upgrade to digital television in the Gumeracha area and a guarantee from the Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy that the residents of the district will receive digital television.

from 164 citizens

Petition received

While I support the switch over from analog TV to digital TV, what is occurring with the switch over to digital TV is that the Rudd government—and the Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy in particular—is failing to provide for those communities that have television reception difficulties and which have previously had alternative solutions. I will talk briefly about each district separately.

Yankallila district, as members of this House may be aware, is a very hilly district and for a long time has had issues with television reception. In fact, it only started getting regular television signals in the late 1980s after the council put together enough money to build the required towers to service the area. We now have the issue that those towers will not be upgraded unless the Rudd government and this minister develop a black spots type program, which would be implemented as part of the digital switch over. And I think a very important program too if I may say in the sense that these days television is a right for people. We would all expect to have the opportunity to get our television. I think that this government at this stage is not paying enough care to those areas which it knows have a problem.

There are two types of problems with the digital switchover. There is the tyranny of distance in Australia, which we are seeing with the initial trial in Mildura right now where a satellite service is being trialled to cover large amounts of area. Being from there originally, I understand the challenges. However, in Yankallila and Gumeracha the issue is simply that the towers need to be upgraded. The towers and the infrastructure are already there. This government could upgrade those services today. They know the problems there. The excuse of the minister that we need to consider how the trials go in Mildura just does not add up because the minister knows that he can fix the problem today and give certainty to these people.

There is so much anger about this issue. We had a public meeting in Yankallila but unfortunately it appeared that every Labor member in South Australia and the minister had something on that night and could not make it down to the meeting. Instead, they sent a bureaucrat to face an angry crowd of about 300 people who just want certainty about their television services, which is completely understandable. They want to know that they can see the Adelaide Crows or Port Power, if that is their choice, on a Friday or Saturday night. It would be a game government that would prevent a community from being able to access those sorts of services.

I am sure that in the end the government will fund these towers. However, the issue is that it should happen today. People should be given the certainty today. It would be good for the switchover. It would create an increased pace that would take away a problem. We have a farcical situation now where people in Yankallila and Gumeracha see the ads, go out and buy big, new flatscreen TVs, get home and cannot use them because there is no digital signal. All it would take is a simple program from this government, a well-thought-through program rather than the rushed decision making that we see, which would allow these people to have certainty that they will have their digital television services going forward from 2013.

I am sure that in the end the government will fund these towers. However, the issue is that it should happen today. People should be given the certainty today. It would be good for the switchover. It would create an increased pace that would take away a problem. We have a farcical situation now where people in Yankallila and Gumeracha see the ads, go out and buy big, new flatscreen TVs, get home and cannot use them because there is no digital signal. All it would take is a simple program from this government, a well-thought-through program rather than the rushed decision making that we see, which would allow these people to have certainty that they will have their digital television services going forward from 2013.

We know that the government is going to make many billions of dollars out of the sale of the spectrum and we see that as a sword above the head of Telstra. Another bill before the Senate that we have debated in this House means that that spectrum will be worth a large amount of money when the analog signal is turned off. So they know that they are going to have the money. They could develop a black spots program. I congratulate Senator Minchin, our leader in the other place, for the work he has been doing on this issue as the communications spokesman.

This petition of 712 signatures from Yankallila and 164 from the small town of Gumeracha shows the level of interest in these communities. I call on Minister Conroy to do something and to act today. I call on the Rudd government to do something and act today. Give certainty to these people. Fix this issue today and we will move on happily and with digital television services.