Tom Venning (Grey, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Grassfires are just a part of life on a broadacre farm, particularly in the last few years. Whether it's a failed bearing or some fine lentil dust getting in an exhaust, fires are just a part of farming life. However, on 5 December, Louie Bagshaw—or Lucas, for the Hansardwatched a fire tear across his property near Weetulta on the Yorke Peninsula. A week later, it happened again.

But this isn't about two fires. This is about what happened when Lucas tried to call for help. Nothing. No signal. No connection. No way to alert his neighbours.

Your first thought is triple zero, but that's not our reality in country South Australia. Lucas told me straight: you do not rely on triple zero in the country. He had a better chance of saving his home by ringing the CFS member down the road, or his neighbour, than waiting for emergency services. So he tried to call his neighbours, tried to call the CFS, then threw his phone in the ute and started fighting the fire alone. His neighbours helped only because they happened to drive by, saw some smoke in the rear-view mirror and turned around. They grabbed the fire unit and they came back. This is what neighbours do for each other in the country. Lucas went through 3,000 litres of water before help arrived. Forty firefighters on 10 trucks finally showed up. The damage: 56 pine trees, his header, a baler and kilometres of fencing.

A second fire was different only because someone was home with Starlink—a monthly subscription they now pay on top of phone bills just to make calls from their own home. Think about that reality—in 2026 a farmer pays Telstra $50 more per month than nine years ago, with worse service. Now they pay another $120 a month for Starlink. When the fires were out, Lucas walked inside and his phone exploded with delayed messages arriving at 11 pm—five hours after the emergency. Five hours may as well have been five years. Why is this? The facts are stark. Over nine years of coalition government, 54 mobile phone towers were put in the electorate of Grey; under this Labor government, zero. They've made promises, but there has been little action. Telcos switched off 3G despite promising no degradation in service. However, that has proven to be not true, and now they are holding back on infrastructure and banking on satellites. But satellites won't save Lucas's home when the fire breaks out. His neighbour down the road could—if Lucas could make a call. Regional Australians deserve what metropolitan residents take for granted. We need mobile phone towers in places like Whitwarta or Halbury, and across regional South Australia—not promises, not 'eventually', but now.