Anne Webster (Mallee, National Party, Shadow Minister for Regional Development, Local Government and Territories) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House:

(1) notes that:

(a) the 3G telecommunications network was switched off on the Government's watch in 2024;

(b) the interim report of the Senate inquiry into the shutdown made clear recommendations about the impending shutdown, recommending that the Government delay the shutdown until it was satisfied that 'the 4G network provides coverage equivalent to or better than the coverage provided by the licensee's 3G network';

(c) the Government relied on the assurances of commercial operators to ensure equivalent mobile coverage after the shutdown but despite promises, regional Australians have been detrimentally affected and thousands of consumers have been left with worse, or no, coverage at all;

(d) furthermore, there have been reports of poor handling of consumer complaints about their loss of service post 3G shutdown; and

(e) the Government has failed to take responsibility for the fallout of the 3G shutdown in regional Australia, and its response to the final report by the Senate into the shutdown was again lazy and noncommittal, failing to agree to any new actions; and

(2) calls upon the Minister for Communications to take responsibility for the botched 3G shutdown and its impact on the connectivity of regional Australians by:

(a) providing transparency regarding the crowdsourcing component of the National Audit of Mobile Coverage and expanding it to include off-road areas (including on private land such as farming and grazing properties) to ensure an accurate picture of the impact of the shutdown on mobile coverage is attained; and

(b) thoroughly addressing the first recommendation of the final Senate inquiry report to 'establish a program to help customers that have lost mobile phone coverage since the 3G shutoff'.

The shutdown of the 3G telecommunications network in 2024 has been nothing short of a disaster for regional communities, and the government's response has been woefully inadequate. I rise today to speak on behalf of regional Australians across this country, who have been left behind again by the Albanese Labor government when it comes to access to telecommunications services. Let me be clear: while the decision to shut down the 3G network was made by commercial operators—TPG in January 2024, followed by Optus and Telstra in October—it was the Albanese government's responsibility to ensure that regional Australians would not be worse off. The Senate inquiry into the shutdown made that abundantly clear. The government should have delayed the shutdown until it was satisfied that the 4G network provided coverage equivalent to, or better than, 3G. But, instead of taking action, the government relied on the promises of telcos—promises that have proven hollow.

Thousands of Australians, particularly in rural and remote areas, now face worse coverage or no coverage at all. Phones drop to SOS mode. Medical alarms have failed. Farmers are left without connectivity on their properties. This is not just inconvenient; it is dangerous. The impacts have been widespread. Devices that relied on 3G, such as ag tech tools, security systems and life-saving medical equipment, have been rendered useless. People are forced to install expensive satellite systems, like Starlink, just to stay connected—all of this during a cost-of-living crisis, where regional Australians pay the same for mobile plans as city dwellers but receive a far inferior service.

The government's response to the Senate inquiry's final report was lazy and non-committal. Labor have failed to agree to any new actions. They have failed to take responsibility and they have failed regional Australians.

The Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman received over 51,000 complaints from regional consumers between 2021 and 2024. These complaints ranged from poor service quality and outages to accessibility barriers and unresolved faults. Some constituents have reported faults for years without any improvement. Others were misled into signing up for services that simply don't work where they live.

This is unacceptable. The Senate committee made two key recommendations in their final report that must be acted upon immediately by Minister Wells and the Albanese government: The first was to establish a program to help customers who lost mobile coverage due to the 3G shutdown. This program should be co-funded by government and industry and include subsidies for connectivity equipment—boosters, satellite services and replacements for obsolete devices. Secondly, they should expand the national audit of mobile coverage to include off-road areas, including private land such as farms and grazing properties. This data must be collected from consumers, cross-referenced with telco data and published in an accessible format. I call on the Minister for Communications to take responsibility for this botched shutdown.

We need transparency, we need action and we need a government that listens and acts for regional Australians. The Prime Minister likes to say, on repeat: 'No-one held back. No-one left behind.' We all know the saying. But every regional Australian knows he doesn't mean it. When it comes to mobile connectivity—a bit like roads—we have been held back; we have been left behind. It is time for the Albanese government to stop ignoring the regions and start fixing the mess they helped create. Regional Australians deserve better. They deserve reliable mobile coverage. They deserve to be heard.

Andrew Wilkie (Clark, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Is the motion seconded?

Aaron Violi (Casey, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I second the motion and reserve my right to speak.

Matt Smith (Leichhardt, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to speak on the motion moved by the member for Mallee. I'm glad to have the opportunity to talk about telecommunications, especially given my electorate and its struggles to get solid phone coverage. I can say with absolute certainty that everyone on this side wants and supports better telecommunications, especially for the regions. We can say that with confidence because we didn't try to downgrade the NBN the first chance we got.

You should have access to quality communication services no matter where you live. Be it Canberra or Cairns, Sydney or Seisia, Melbourne or Mapoon, you deserve good coverage. Sadly, that is not the case. My electorate is vast, it is empty and there is not a lot of coverage. Ninety-seven per cent of Leichhardt has no mobile phone coverage. I could make jokes about how, when I drive to Coen or Bamaga or Weipa and spend nine to 12 hours on dirt roads, my Spotify doesn't work and whoever is driving with me has to listen to my singing, but that's not really the point. It's dangerous. It's always been dangerous, and there has never been coverage there. It doesn't matter how many Gs you put in front of it.

I've been in this role for six months. We've got commitments to get low-orbit satellites and to get 100 per cent of Leichhardt covered with mobile coverage, from three per cent. That's not on this government; that's on every previous government: 97 per cent without coverage. That's impacting health, education, transport, small business—all the things that the other side claimed to support but ignored. There were regions that mattered, but apparently mine didn't.

That's why we in Labor are investing in telecommunications: $55 million for round 8 of the Mobile Black Spot Program; $50 million for Regional Roads Australia Mobile pilot programs; just over $115 million towards 74 projects that respond to local priorities with the objective of maximising economic opportunities and social benefits for regional and remote communities, as part of round 3 of the Regional Connectivity Program; and, as part of two successful rounds of the On Farm Connectivity Program, over $30.4 million in rebates, delivering thousands of connectivity solutions for primary producers, with another $20 million committed to round 3 of the program.

Connectivity doesn't just mean phones; it increases the yield of our farmers. Our cane growers are now using connectivity to check their crops, understand their run-off and make sure they can handle their pests. It is also part of the Better Connectivity Plan for Regional and Rural Australia, which will deliver $1.1 billion from 2022-23 to 2029-30. The 3G shutdown, for better or worse, is happening. It's no good looking back; we should look forward, and there's no doubt that Australians in some of the particularly regional and rural areas are experiencing poorer connectivity because of this. But this was a commercial decision made by Telstra, Optus and Vodafone, and it seems that more often than not the opposition's answer to everything is to blame the government or the Prime Minister regardless of whose decision it was. So, while they try and pin private commercial decisions on us, I wonder what else we can get blamed for here. Fantales were discontinued. I miss them dearly. Is that Albo's fault?

Unlike those opposite, when something is impacting Australians, we step up. Since the 3G shutdown, the former communications minister convened a roundtable with the telecommunications industry, regulators and consumer advocates to reflect on Australia's 3G switch-off. This allowed discussions to happen about what we can do better when Australia transfers to new technologies in the future. We will give the people the reception that they need and that they deserve, and that they needed and deserved a decade ago. The action is being taken now.

We're looking forward in the communications—there is a big policy push that will help and that's a universal outdoor mobile obligation. The UOMO—that's a mouthful—will require Telstra, Optus and TPG to provide access to outdoor mobile SMS and voice coverage right across Australia. They will be able to leverage their existing mobile networks or use low-Earth-orbit satellites using direct-to-device technology. This is the change that is needed in regional areas. This is the change that is going to make a difference to the kids studying in Aurukun. This is going to make travel in the cape safer should you blow out a tyre or hit a pig. This is going to allow health to be done over telehealth, giving better health outcomes. It is great news for my community.

Aaron Violi (Casey, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I want to commend the member for Mallee for this motion. It's a very important one, because the reality is—as we on this side talk about often—the phone lines working can be the difference between life and death. When Australians pick up the phone and call triple 0, they expect that the phone will be answered and that they will get the help that they need, and it's not a political line. Many in my community, including me, were impacted by the June storms of 2021. We were blocked into our home, with trees across the front of our driveway, unable to get out. When the power ran out—which it did, late in the night—we woke up early that morning and had no phone reception. There is not a more vulnerable feeling that you have as a husband and as a father than knowing that, if a disaster had happened and if a tree had fallen across our house as it did to many in our community, I wouldn't have been able to call triple 0 to get the help my family needed.

We had situations where our CFA brigades, who were not trained in storm recovery or helping people in storms, were navigating in pitch dark, and CFA communications officers were having to try and text message other brigade members to make sure they could know where they were and what was going on. One of the brigade communications officers shared a story with me at that time about how they could not move their phone for want of losing reception. If they moved it a centimetre, they would lose reception. That's what we talk about and that's why we're so passionate on this side about making sure we have strong communications in this country. And we have a minister that is failing the Australian people. We just heard it from the member for Leichhardt. They are so quick to blame private enterprise—Optus, Telstra et cetera—and they absolutely have a role to play, but there's a little bit of a hint in the title: Minister for Communications. That makes this government and the minister responsible for making sure the Australian people get the communications they need.

This minister has failed when it comes to triple 0 and has failed when it comes to 3G. It's a pity the member for Leichhardt has left because I would've loved to have reminded him that this government has been in power for 3½ years. He seemed very generous in giving them a leave pass. But we will see as we move forward. He'll learn very quickly that this government is big on spin but low on delivery. I'm going to look forward to tracking the reception in Leichhardt, and when it doesn't improve, which I'm very confident it won't, because we know it's spin from this government, we will see whether the member for Leichhardt will call out the failures of this minister. I will watch with interest.

This minister was warned about the 3G network. This minister has been warned about triple 0. And what has been the minister's response? It has been: 'I'm sorry. I'm a new minister.' That's what we have had from this government. This is time urgent. This is not a time for politics; this is a time for making sure the Australian people have the support they need. We are now into November. We are now entering the disaster season for all Australians. I've been lucky enough and honoured to attend a lot of CFA annual dinners in my community in the last three to four months, and the messaging from the district commanders and the captains has been consistent: stay safe and look after yourself, because the conditions we see this summer are some of the most dangerous we have seen since Black Saturday and Ash Wednesday. That's the reality. It is why we are urging the minister to act.

But we get talk of roundtables. Roundtables aren't going to make sure that, when someone who was on the 3G network needs to call triple 0, it's going to work now. We have a minister who's obsessed with the spin and is happy to fly to New York to talk about the social media ban. It's important—we absolutely support that—but not at a time when the triple 0 network is failing. It is about priorities. It is about making sure the Australian people are safe, and this minister has shown time and time again that she does not have the ability to deal with these issues. She does not have the ability to call Optus to account. She is afraid of transparency. She has refused to attend the Senate hearing into the triple 0 failures. The Australian people can have no confidence in this minister or this government, and that is a shame because it is the Australian people who pay the price for their continual failures.

Lisa Chesters (Bendigo, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It's another sitting week and we have yet another negative motion being put forward by the member for Mallee. It's become a regular occurrence that the member for Mallee puts forward negativity after negativity. This is a bit of a rehash of an old motion that has no insight into and is no reflection on what her colleagues did when they were ministers and in government.

Let's just remind those opposite that privatisation and being market driven is now the reality for our telecommunications. If you want to switch back to a government owned service, that is going to take a lot of money. Those opposite may also forget that it was the Howard government that, with T1, T2 and T3, effectively privatised our telecommunications. That was the last time we had reliable communications in this country, with every house having a copper landline, as was the technology of the day. We lost the ability to control the market back when it was privatised under the Nationals and the Liberals during the Howard government.

What we have today is a patchwork market, which those opposite failed to do anything about in their nine years of government. Round after round of their Mobile Black Spot Program went through the Audit Office, which found it did not genuinely increase coverage for regional areas. In electorates like mine, a regional electorate, we might get one each term of the previous government. This did little or nothing to improve the coverage in my electorate.

Those opposite are criticising a roundtable, but I say to those opposite: you're so opposed to regulation, but this is what you need if you want to regulate a market to deliver service to everybody. The markets don't like to go to the regions. They need to build a tower, but if there aren't the customers, they're not going to build it. This is what telcos tell them and tell us all the time. The market isn't going to build a tower in Metcalfe in my electorate. There aren't the customers to sustain that investment. They turn around and say: 'What are you going to do?' The program doesn't work. It's clunky. This is why we've had roundtables—to bring people together to ask: What are the lessons? How can we make the market kinder? How can we adapt the market to deliver the services that we need?

This is also why we committed to an audit. This was a 2022 election commitment, which we are halfway through doing. It's been a longstanding concern of people in the regions that the telco coverage maps do not reflect the experience of mobile users. Every member in the regions has experienced this. We ourselves have experienced this. The map says we've got coverage out in Tarnagulla, but, when you get there, the coverage isn't there. The map says you have coverage in Tooborac, but, when you get there, it isn't there. Part of that is because each telco has its own metrics—its own way of measuring it. We are proposing to standardise it. We want to see all the telcos using the same set of measures. Those opposite are opposed to it. They say it's more red tape for the telcos. They want their cake and to eat it too. They are not genuinely interested in improving telecommunications in the regions. All they want to do is throw mud and throw stones.

We on this side of the House accept that it is a long-term challenge, and we are working to build the coverage. We genuinely believe on this side of the House that, regardless of where you live, you should have access to telecommunications. Our vision is absolutely clear: it is making Australia the most connected continent in the world, and we acknowledge we have a lot of work to do. That is why we're getting on with doing it. There is $1.1 billion going into the Better Connectivity Plan for Regional and Rural Australia. We are not going to let the telcos dictate to us where the investment will be. We want to see everybody having access to those devices, because that's how a lot of us access our lives. Currently, $55 million for the latest round, round 8, of the Black Spot Program is under assessment. We will improve coverage, as opposed to what those opposite did, with $50 million to improve telecommunications programs for our regional roads. Round 3 of the connectivity programs just awarded 274 projects. We've had successful rounds of the Farm Connectivity Program. The list goes on.

Then we get to what we're also doing, and it is our government, a Labor government, delivering this: the Universal Outdoor Mobile Obligation. It is this government, a Labor government, that will make this a requirement—not the Liberals and not the Nationals in the nine years they had in government, but a Labor government. Watch this space: outdoor mobile obligation under us.

Jamie Chaffey (Parkes, National Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Agriculture) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The lack of reliable telecommunications in regional Australia has created a very, very dangerous situation. The loss of the 3G network last year has plunged Albanese's forgotten Australians into further isolation, with many people left with no coverage at all. Anyone in this chamber, in Parliament House today or our loved ones could be driving along a regional road—let's say the Newell Highway, a critical route that connects Victoria with Queensland, transversing my own electorate, the federal seat of Parkes. Imagine something happened to you or your loved one while you were on that route and you were stranded beside the highway. In most areas outside the township along that critical highway, there is absolutely no reception. You or your loved one would have no way to call for help. You or your loved one would be at the mercy of other drivers passing by to help you. It is quite simply unacceptable. This would not happen to those who live in metropolitan areas like Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne and Perth. Or, if it did, it would be fixed in an Albanese flash. This is only one of the dangerous consequences of this situation.

As I connect with residents right across the 407,000 square kilometres of my electorate, they are constantly telling me of their frustrations trying to conduct a business, stay in touch with family and friends and feel secure in the fact that, if they need to, they can contact someone for urgent help. I heard only today from a business in Gilgandra that, when a purchase is made, staff need to stand outside in the street for the EFTPOS machine to work. Can you believe it? Communication devices do not work under steel roofs. Not only are phones and EFTPOS machines not working or working at limited levels, there are other consequences such as impacts on alarm systems and software that pinpoints your location in an emergency. Our critical regional organisations, such as the Country Women's Association and the National Farmers' Federation, continue to voice their frustrations with the problems caused by poor connectivity. The CWA has noted it impacts on basic activities like internet banking, accessing weather updates, distance education and business needs. Today, a representative of the CWA has said the organisation sent Telstra details of about a hundred cases of connectivity failure across New South Wales in March. They are yet to receive an answer and they continue to hear of problems from their membership.

The National Farmers' Federation have said connectivity is essential to the productivity, the sustainability and the liveability of Australians farming in regional communities. Results came out today of a survey carried out by the Land newspaper. The Land said they received 318 responses from people who say they are simply fed up. They're fed up with the poor standards of telecommunications, and it's going backwards. Respondents quoted that the major issues were safety, use of farm technology, health, connections with family and friends, the extra cost of boosters and even pest management. There were responses from people with health conditions who were afraid they would not be able to reach help in an emergency. People are carrying multiple SIM cards in their pocket. Phone calls are dropping out up to 15 times in 10 minutes.

In the world that regional people live in today, you cannot conduct a business, you cannot grow your farm, you cannot complete your education, you cannot make bookings, you cannot do your banking and you cannot even have your say on legislation without connectivity. The catastrophe of no communications that many regional Australians are facing could be prevented if the Albanese government simply cared enough to do something about it. These are regional people who pay the same or, sometimes, significantly more than Australians who live in the city for the privilege of telecommunications. It's not only dangerous; it's utterly disgraceful. It's time to switch the lights back on in regional Australia and to treat regional Australians with respect. The situation is not cheaper for regional Australia, it's not better and it's definitely not fair.

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

It's really good that we're here talking about connectivity and about old technology being phased out for new. I appreciate the member for Mallee's concerns about 3G, but, essentially, the needs of Australia's modern economy and the broader community outgrew the capabilities of 3G. It's not the first time we've had to shift technologies and it's not the last time that we're going to have to shift technologies. So that's what I want to focus on.

It is really important that we learn the lessons from every one of these experiences. They're all going to be different, and 3G certainly had its challenges, but I have to say it isn't the biggest challenge in connectivity my community faced then or now. There continue to be challenges in staying connected. This government believes that there should be coverage that is reliable and resilient, and I want to see that reliable and resilient coverage across the 4,300 square kilometres of the electorate that I represent. It is vital when there is a bushfire or a flood or a big storm that you have that connectivity.

I don't say that just as someone who can look at it objectively and say, 'Oh, it must be really important.' I've actually been in the circumstance where I needed to use mobile coverage to contact my then 18-year-old, when he was at home with a bushfire burning very near to him, to work out how quickly he could get out and what he had time to take. Yes, he took the cat. That was a good thing! But those conversations are not hypothetical for people who live in the Blue Mountains or Hawkesbury, whether it's fire or flood. They are conversations that many of us have had, and we've only been able to have them because we have connectivity.

In the case I experienced—this is going back to 2013—we could not communicate by voice, repeatedly. Texts had a better chance of getting through. Lines were very busy. You didn't actually know if your text message was getting through. They are really scary times for people, and that's why I had always known, theoretically, how important connectivity was. But it is absolutely a life-and-death matter in electorates like mine that the network is connected, reliable and resilient, and that's what I've been fighting for the 15 years I've been in politics but most particularly nearly 10 years I've been in this parliament. When I was in opposition I pushed hard to have that additional mobile funding we needed to deal with some of the black spots. When the Liberals gave up and took away a new mobile phone tower from Mount Tomar, which is on the Bells Line of Road that heads west from Sydney, the telcos decided it was a bit hard to install, so the Liberals agreed for them to take it away from our community, after we had fought—I thought—to get it back. I am very pleased to say that I understand the connection to power is imminent and that community and everybody who passes through that busy stretch—years and years after it should have——will soon have mobile coverage across that whole section.

When fires and flooding in the Macdonald Valley in the northern part of my electorate of Macquarie made it impossible for the Liberals to ignore our telecommunication needs, they provided funding to the Hawkesbury council. Hawkesbury council had minimal experience and expertise in mobile phone installations. However, that was a decision and a commitment the Morrison government made, and then they lost that election.

On coming to government, even though we had been assured that things were in place, no movement had happened on that—the funding hadn't even been properly secured—so we worked hard to secure the funding and to bring council and Telstra together, along with some very savvy Macdonald Valley association members, to deliver some improvements. Even now, we are still waiting on two parts of the project in the valley and one section of a project on the Bells Line of Road at Berambing. They weren't completed before the funding expired. I am still to this day fighting to get that one back on track because my community needs those bits all linked up.

We have Hawkesbury Heights with a new tower operating, Yellow Rock is about to get its new tower, and those things are the difference between life and death. (Time expired)

Colin Boyce (Flynn, Liberal National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

An elderly lady is frantically trying to ring triple 0 as her neighbour has a heart attack but she can't get through to emergency services. A mother is frustrated as she is unable to pay her household quarterly electricity bill, as the two-factor authentication text isn't coming through from the bank. A worried father drives 40 minutes down the road to be able to call the local GP practice to book an appointment for his sick daughter. A community is furious that they are unable to make calls or text for weeks over Christmas, as their local mobile phone tower is down from recent rain. An exhausted small business owner places a 'cash only' sign on the front door of their shop as the eftpos machine has been dropping out all week. This is the reality of telecommunications in rural and regional Australia in the electorate of Flynn.

I strongly support the member for Mallee's motion that notes the following:

(a)the 3G telecommunications network was switched off on the Government's watch in 2024;

(b)the interim report of the Senate inquiry into the shutdown made clear recommendations about the impending shutdown, recommending that the Government delay the shutdown until it was satisfied that 'the 4G network provides coverage equivalent to or better than the coverage provided by the licensee's 3G network';

(c)the Government relied on the assurances of commercial operators to ensure equivalent mobile coverage after the shutdown but despite promises, regional Australians have been detrimentally affected and thousands of consumers have been left with worse, or no, coverage at all;

(d)furthermore, there have been reports of poor handling of consumer complaints about their loss of service post 3G shutdown; and

(e)the Government has failed to take responsibility for the fallout of the 3G shutdown in regional Australia, and its response to the final report by the Senate into the shutdown was again lazy and noncommittal, failing to agree to any new actions; and

(2)calls upon the Minister for Communications to take responsibility for the botched 3G shutdown and its impact on the connectivity of regional Australians by:

(a)providing transparency regarding the crowdsourcing component of the National Audit of Mobile Coverage and expanding it to include off-road areas (including on private land such as farming and grazing properties) to ensure an accurate picture of the impact of the shutdown on mobile coverage is attained; and

(b)thoroughly addressing the first recommendation of the final Senate inquiry report to 'establish a program to help customers that have lost mobile phone coverage since the 3G shutoff'.

Telecommunications have gotten so bad in my electorate that my 3½-hour commute to my home town of Taroom from my Gladstone office can take up to six hours, as I have to pull over frequently to take calls from constituents and so forth. Not having a dependable phone service is undoubtedly isolating for individuals, stifling for business and potentially dangerous in any emergency. Landline telephones are often the only form of communication between one cattle station and its neighbours and the outside world, and these are in disrepair and can take weeks and sometimes months to fix when things go wrong. In rural areas, people are significant distances from service centres and even further from regional towns, and the need for reliable phone coverage is paramount and even more essential than in the cities. With banks and other essential services pushing for online over face-to-face assistance and closing branches in regions, there needs to be wider-spread phone coverage instead of reductions.

It's simply unthinkable that those in rural and regional areas are to be left with no communication capabilities or to face extortionate prices to gain access. It's quite clear to me that, in regard to the big telcos, the telecommunications issue is one of economics rather than service delivery. I would argue that, because of the enormous progression of technology and the cost, telcos are not interested in providing communications to communities where is little or no economic benefit for them. This is why all service obligations should be reviewed to provide better communications outcomes, particularly for isolated communities.

I invite the Minister for Communications and the CEOs of Telstra and Optus to the Flynn electorate to see how dire the situation really is. They need to speak to our regional communities and understand the impacts the 3G shutdown is having now and how telecommunications continue to get worse. (Time expired)

David Smith (Bean, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'm pleased to rise to speak to this motion and recognise the contributions of earlier speakers. I thank the member for Mallee for bringing this matter to the attention of the House. In doing so, the member has afforded us the opportunity to explore the importance and implications of the 3G shutdown and what can be learned from it.

This issue sits at the crossroads of so much of what is important and relevant for all people everywhere 25 years into the 21st century. It's an issue which touches on safe and accessible communications across all avenues and spectrums. It also directly concerns the constant change and advance of technology and the means by which upgrades take place. I suspect that this will not be the last time that this House will debate similar issues.

Let us be completely clear. The decision to turn off the 3G network was not one made by the government. This was a commercial decision, a decision made by Australia's three mobile network operators—namely, Telstra, Optus and Vodafone-TPG. They made this decision, and, while we are navigating the impacts and implications of this switch-off, the reasons behind the change as stated by the three mobile network operators make sense. The 3G network was very suitable for calls and texts but only for basic online activities and completely unsuitable for accessing the full range of data-intensive online applications and services which are an everyday part of our economic society. In short, we had outgrown what 3G could offer, and the continuing presence of this capability was taking up valuable spectrum.

But, as with all change, the 3G switch-off has not come without some cost. All technological change comes with impacts that are not all positive. That does not mean that change and progress should be avoided or allowed to occur without any support or intervention at all. Indeed, the difference between this government and the previous one is that we're committed to seeing the change through and ensuring that no-one is left behind or falls through the cracks that can sometimes form between opportunity and progress.

The government has made its expectations clear to the mobile network operators, and we are continuing to monitor the impacts of the 3G switch-off. We've already identified areas where coverage and access to communications have been adversely impacted, and we are providing support in those areas and to those affected. As an example of this, we are currently offering round 3 of the On Farm Connectivity Program, through which we are assisting primary producers to improve connectivity to their farms.

Additionally, the former minister for communications, the member for Greenway, convened a roundtable with the mobile network operators, other industry actors, regulators and consumers to explore the process and outcomes of the 3G network shutdown. From it, the government has a clearer understanding of what worked, what didn't and what needs to happen differently next time—because it is inevitable that there will be a next time for a network shutdown, and, when that time comes, we will be ready.

But the negative impacts from the 3G shutdown are just a very small part of the story. For the vast majority of Australians, the shutdown occurred without perceptible change whatsoever. Indeed, it's fair to say most didn't even notice. So, from that perspective, the 3G switch-off was largely successful. But that in itself is not a reason to not learn from the things that didn't go properly during this shutdown process, and it's important that we ensure that we support those that have fallen through the cracks and make sure that they don't fall through the cracks going forward.

Andrew Wilkie (Clark, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The time allotted for this debate has expired. The debate is adjourned and the resumption of the debate will be made an order of the day for the next sitting.