Pat Conroy (Shortland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Since I was elected to parliament four years ago there has been rarely a week in my electorate office where we haven't received complaints about inadequate television reception. I have been actively campaigning for improved communication services in the Lake Macquarie and Central Coast regions, and I have continually called upon the Minister for Communications and the government to help me in resolving this issue. However, the people of Shortland have been continually ignored. These residents are right to expect decent television reception, as television provides us access to news and a connection to our community with locally produced content from regional broadcasters. It's particularly important for people who are elderly or isolated, as free-to-air television remains the most accessible form of telecommunication.

Inaction by the government prompted me to launch a digital television survey to gain further feedback on the state of television services in Shortland. I received 227 responses, which provides a small snapshot of the area. However, hearing these stories has been overwhelming. So many people have told me they are frustrated and angry, and many have exhausted all their options. I found from the survey that the transition to digital has seen a large decline in satisfaction. The proportion of respondents who were satisfied with their television service developed from 83 per cent with analog to 54 per cent with digital since the transition. That's a drop of 30 percentage points. Of the respondents who had a technician out to improve their service, more than half saw little or no improvement.

One example is Mrs Flanagan from Belmont, who has had several technicians out to try and improve her reception since the switch to digital. Nothing has helped. She looks after her grandchildren and is unable to access ABC KIDS for them because of the poor reception. I can attest to the value of ABC KIDS. Mrs Flanagan applied to the Australian government to receive access to VAST—viewer access satellite television—to resolve the issues, but was rejected because of the new transmission tower at Belmont North. However, multiple technicians have explained to her that the new tower offers her no improvement.

Another example is Mr Hedley from Caves Beach, who has digital reception so bad that he's had to pay for VAST equipment to be installed. The ability to watch television came at a considerable expense to him. I do not believe it's reasonable or fair that these residents are forced to invest in a satellite service simply to replace what has been delivered for free for nearly half a century. Due to the nature of satellite television, Mr Hedley is now excluded from accessing local news content from NBN.

The government has been aware of these issues for years, as they were first raised in 2014. In the years since, the government's response to my attempts to resolve this issue has been appalling. I have asked both the former and the current Minister for Communications to refer the digital television issues to the Australian Communications and Media Authority for field testing and for the government and the regional broadcasters to start working together to find a solution to these problems. This has not been done. In an act of political opportunism, half a million dollars of federal funding was allocated to upgrading the television transmitter near the nearby Paterson electorate in 2015. The minister at the time, the current Prime Minister, had to drive through my electorate to go to Paterson to announce this investment. I had hoped that the communications minister would do the same for the people of Shortland, but instead they were ignored.

The people I represent deserve better than that. Many people might think that television reception is an issue that is a luxury; but in fact, in the modern world, in a developed nation, it is still the primary means that many people use to get information on current affairs and news events and to inform their decisions about who they will vote for in elections. It's actually an important part of the democratic process for people to have access to free-to-air television.

To conclude, whilst recognising that the Minister for Regional Communications has recently responded to my representations, her reply is totally inadequate. She does not seem to understand how serious the problem is in Shortland. She gives some vague advice about tuning and antennas. I can tell her that my constituents are well aware of how to tune their televisions. Many have spent hundreds of dollars, if not thousands, on new antennas and technicians, with no improvement whatsoever. Access to basic services like free-to-air television in areas less than an hour and a half from Sydney, a larger city, is a basic right in a developed nation. It is a right that should not be politicised. To my constituents, I say: I will continue to campaign for greater telecommunication services, including television reception. I will not rest until we get the services we deserve from this unsympathetic government.