House debates Statements by Members

Mobile Black Spot Program

Monday, 19 June 2023 House of Representatives

David Coleman

David Coleman Banks, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Communications

1:57 pm

Round 6 of the Mobile Black Spot Program is an absolute national disgrace and is fully supported by this man over here, the Prime Minister. He should not support it because it is a complete misuse of taxpayer funds. If you want to find out more about it, I can strongly recommend this URL: 2gb.com/answer-the-question-shocker-interview-with-michelle-rowland. At the URL you'll discover a lot. You'll discover that the minister personally handpicked every site. You'll discover that 74 per cent of the sites are in Labor electorates. You'll discover that in New South Wales—a big state—there are 27 grants. How many of them are in Labor electorates? All 27.

If the minister and the Prime Minister are supportive of this, you'd think they'd be very comfortable providing documentation. I put in a freedom-of-information request and said, 'Tell us about this wonderful program.' Guess how many documents were provided by the minister in response to the freedom-of-information request?

Peter Dutton

Peter Dutton Dickson, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition

Surely 100!

David Coleman

David Coleman Banks, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Communications

It wasn't 100, Leader of the Opposition. It wasn't 50. It wasn't 10. It was zero. They refused to provide any documents. That tells you everything you need to know. Shortly, the Auditor-General will make a very important decision about an investigation into this program. We need that investigation because this program is a disgrace.