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

I was extremely disappointed to see that the Longman community were neglected by this Labor government in the last round of the mobile black spot funding, despite the need for better mobile coverage in our community being enormous. Longman is one of those electorates in the country where the city meets the bush. We have blocks ranging from 300 square metres up to thousands of acres of farming land. Unfortunately, the areas in Longman that qualify for black spot funding, such as Woodford, D'Aguilar, Mount Mee, Stanmore, Toorbul, Donnybrook, Sandstone Point and Beachmere, were snubbed in this latest round. Many of these areas have a higher-than-average age cohort that rely on mobile connectivity for medical alert devices, not to mention that communities like Woodford and D'Aguilar are regularly devastated by flood events, where mobile connectivity is crucial. Mobile coverage truly can be the difference between life and death.

Out of the 54 locations in the nation that received the funding, 40 were in Labor seats, which is 74 per cent. This is despite the fact that Labor hold only around 30 per cent of seats eligible for black spot funding. To put porkbarrelling and politics before the needs of the Longman community is reprehensible. The people of Longman deserve better treatment than this from this Labor government. I'm asking the minister to intervene and relook at her decision and redirect some of this funding to the Longman community that I serve, because they deserve it just as much as any Labor held seat.