David Coleman (Banks, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Communications) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Round 6 of the Mobile Black Spot Program under this government is an absolute disgrace and an absolute rort. Let's recap what we know. We know that the minister admitted to Ben Fordham on Radio 2GB in April that she picked 54 out of 54 locations that got funding under this program. Not one was based on advice from the department—54 out of 54 were picked by the minister. We know that even though the Labor Party only holds a third of seats in regional Australia, guess what? Seventy-four per cent of the locations that the minister picked were in Labor electorates. Guess what else we know? In New South Wales and Victoria, of the 30 locations that she picked, 100 per cent were in Labor electorates. It's an absolute disgrace.

I was in country Victoria recently and there are communities crying out for additional mobile services that face issues with mobile black spots and bushfires. This program must be done on the basis of need, not on the basis of the Labor Party's political benefits. The Auditor-General wrote to me last week in response to my request for an investigation into this program and said that he sees merit in a potential audit, and I certainly hope and look forward to that occurring because the program is a disgrace.