Terry Young (Longman, Liberal National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Love 'em or hate 'em, mobile phones are a fact of life, and in many cases they are a necessary part of our lives. We use them for work and to keep in touch with friends and family, and these days we use our phones for an almost infinite number of tasks and activities online. They have also been used to save lives. If someone collapses at a shopping centre, you reach for a phone and call triple 0, and, likewise, if you come across a serious crash on the road or see a crime being committed. There's a reason that mobile devices have become such an important part of our lives; it's because they perform so many functions that are important to our daily lives. This is why people in my electorate of Longman get so frustrated when they can't get the one thing that is necessary to use their device—reception.

Longman is an outer metro electorate. We are located north of Brisbane city. Part of the electorate is classed as metro, part of it is classified as rural. To further complicate the matter, there are rural areas in my electorate that are classed as metro and there are metro areas that are classed as rural—it sounds like a Three Stooges skit! This means that people who live in rural areas but have a metro classification cannot get mobile black spot funding for a new or improved mobile tower that will adequately service their property. And I know it's not only Longman in this situation; other outer metro electorates have the same issue. Mobile coverage issues are among the most common complaints that my office receives. People living in Caboolture South, Bellmere, Sandstone Point, Narangba, Wanaaring and Donnybrook seem to have the most problems with getting mobile reception, and it's been this way for years.

The other issue that is becoming more prevalent is the over-50s communities that are cropping up all over the place. These communities have issues of their own, and the only solution in many cases is a mini tower at a cost of around $80,000, which the telcos expect the developer or the residents to pay for. The developers have already got their money, so they're not interested, funnily enough. So the poor resident is expected to pay for the tower, even though I'm sure they're not going to receive a cut of the bill once it's installed, and that's just simply unfair.

Recently I heard of an incident at the Living Gems retirement village in Bellmere where a person had a heart attack but could not call triple 0 from inside their home. This person had to crawl on their hands and knees into their yard in order to get reception to make the call. Thankfully, in this case, they were able to get through and it ended in a good result. But this example shows how important it is in this modern world that all residents have adequate mobile reception. Come on, Telstra, you need to do better. You need to put your hands in your pockets and provide people in these areas with functional mobile reception.

Lately Telstra has been pushing its wi-fi calling service for those people who can't get mobile reception. What this means is people can use their home NBN to make calls over the internet rather than through a mobile phone provider. This is a good solution for those who already have a compatible phone and are technologically savvy enough know how to turn on the wi-fi setting. But the problem is that not every phone has wi-fi calling compatibility and many people can't afford the cost of a new phone that offers this service. Also, many are on a $20-a-month mobile plan and, at the moment, the cheapest NBN plan I could find is $44.95 per month. When you're a pensioner forking out $200 for a new smart phone, plus $44.95 per month on a NBN plan so you can do wi-fi calling on top of your $20-per-month mobile plan to make a phone call, this is simply not an option.

Longman has received new mobile infrastructure grants under the federal government's Mobile Black Spot Program. There is a new macro station tower installed on the NBN tower in Narangba West, and we had a small-cell mobile base station installed near Beachmere Sands and at Moorina. This is very welcome and makes a difference for those people in the coverage area, but there is still a long way to go. We need to ensure that Telstra is listening to the concerns in our communities and addressing these issues in a timely manner. If the only solution is to look at creating a new classification for outer metro electorates that allows for fringe urban areas to apply for mobile black spot funding, then that is what I will fight for.

Earlier this month, Minister Paul Fletcher and I held a telecommunications forum in Caboolture to hear these concerns. About 150 locals turned up, and they were very frank and honest. I'm thankful to the minister for following up on the issues that were raised with him by the guests at the forum. Representatives from Telstra, Optus and Vodafone attended the event and heard firsthand the problems people in Longman are having with their mobile reception. Now we need to act. We need to ensure all residents in outer metro areas get the mobile reception they require, and we need to ensure that no other incident such as what occurred at Living Gems retirement community ever happens again.

House adjourned at 20:00