Don Randall (Canning, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Local Government) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

A number of constituents have contacted my office to complain about the poor quality digital TV reception experienced in the Mandurah area and in Waroona. Problems include audio drop-out, spikes, pixelations across the screen and loud and intermittent electronic noises. Residents have been told that this may be a result of faulty electronic items in surrounding premises. However, the Australian Communications and Media Authority, ACMA, who have the role of investigating these issues, only have offices in Canberra, Melbourne and Sydney. This has made it difficult for my constituents to contact them and also to have their issues further investigated on-site.

Upon contacting the communications minister, Stephen Conroy, his office advised that the residents should point their aerials in the right direction or have a technician inspect the problem. Many of these constituents have come to my office after they have paid for qualified technicians to come to their homes to inspect the problems, and even replace the entire antenna. Many have also contacted ACMA directly, to no avail. The Minister has also suggested that some of the residents may be eligible to move to digital TV via satellite, or VAST—viewer access satellite television—however, this program will not be available in Western Australia until November 2012 and will only be available upon application to areas that do not receive coverage, as deemed by the mySwitchwebsite. According to this website, all of the complaints that have been received have been deemed to be in areas of good coverage, highlighting the inaccuracies of the service. This aside, the satellite service would come at a cost of between $200 and $350, after the government subsidy— (Time expired)