Linda Reynolds (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for Defence) Share this | Hansard source

As part of this government's $650 million bushfire recovery package, announced last month, we are investing over $37 million to strengthen telecommunications resilience in bushfire- and disaster-prone areas across our nation. This will ensure that individuals and communities in regional areas of Australia can stay connected during emergencies. Our investment in the telecommunications emergency resilience package contains three key measures to address telecommunications outages during natural disasters. Firstly, there is $80 million to upgrade backup power and also backhaul for mobile base stations and other telecommunications infrastructure. Secondly, there is $10 million for portable facilities that mobile carriers and also NBN Co will deploy to address temporary coverage gaps caused by power outages. Thirdly, there is $7 million to install NBN satellite connections at 2,000 rural fire depots and evacuation centres. (Time expired)