Susan Templeman (Macquarie, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Some in this place will recall me speaking in February 2020, at the end of the Black Summer fires, when communities like mine were reeling. At the time, there were urgent needs we called on the government to support. In addition, many of us recognised that longer-term investment was required not only to give hope to communities as they started the very long journey to recover but to make our vulnerable places better equipped to deal with the inevitable next bushfire.

When I stood in parliament calling for this sort of funding, never could I have imagined how the Mount Wilson Rural Fire Service brigade members could have made their joint federal-state grant of just under $700,000 go so far. Nor could I have imagined that the people who'd fought fire for many months and struggled with the devastation that the Gospers Mountain fire caused would have had the energy not only to fill in grant proposals but to make sure this project was the best possible outcome for the communities of Mount Wilson, Mount Irvine and their surrounds. Thanks to the additional fundraising efforts of the brigade, the shed we officially opened on Sunday can serve as a operations centre, with improved communications with headquarters—whichever headquarters that might be and wherever it might be—during any fire emergency. Out of something horrific, a practical purpose-built extension to what started out as a humble double garage with roller doors in the 1950s has been created. President Joe Montano, captain Beth Raines and the committee that's worked alongside them deserve the community's praise. It was very fitting that longstanding retiring deputy captain Barry Freeman got to do the honours of officially declaring the shed open.

More than 2,500 homes and businesses in Macquarie can now order uncapped satellite broadband services on Sky Muster. I know most people won't be aware of the failures of the Sky Muster satellite service in its reliability, availability of data access and speeds, but the arrival of the privately owned Starlink really highlighted how second-rate the NBN service that the previous government provided was. It affects mainly homes in the Hawkesbury but also parts of the mountains like the Megalong. Having urged for improvements in satellite services for many years, particularly during the pandemic when people had no choice but to work from home, I am very pleased that under Labor we're seeing improvements. After a successful trial, the new NBN Sky Muster Plus Premium service gives customers unmetered data 24 hours a day and faster speeds of up to 100 megabits per second. The unmetered service is possible because of the Albanese government's $480 million investment to upgrade the NBN fixed-wireless services. That's moved about 120,000 premises from satellite to fixed wireless, freeing up capacity on Sky Muster. The trials of the Sky Muster Plus Premium showed big improvements in user satisfaction, and I hope we see the same in the rollout. Across the NBN networks, including fixed-wireless and fixed-line networks, we're improving the NBN to give Australians access to the 21st century technology they really need and deserve. That includes the $2.4 billion to expand full-fibre NBN, which will benefit many fibre-to-the-node users in the mid-to-upper mountains and across the Hawkesbury in the coming months.

I am very pleased to see the renewed relationship between local government and the federal government, with the first formal meeting in a decade of the local government council. I've had really positive feedback from some of the attendees of last week's meeting, including Hawkesbury councillor Mary Lyons-Buckett and Blue Mountains deputy mayor Romola Hollywood. We channel millions of dollars through councils to repair and improve roads and upgrade infrastructure not just in times of crisis. I'm particularly pleased with the new $100 million fund to help councils improve their energy efficiency, and they tell me they're pretty pleased too. Because it's co-funded, this has the potential to unlock over $200 million in high-impact energy upgrades to save community facilities on bills over the medium to long term. I know the Blue Mountains mayor, Mark Greenhill, is excited at the opportunity. Their council has adopted a net zero emissions from operations by the end of 2025, and Hawkesbury Council has net zero by 2030 or earlier. I know Councillor Daniel Wheeler, who was here, thinks this could make a really big difference.