ADDRESS TO PARLIAMENT - CONSTITUENCY STATEMENTS - Riverina Electorate: Telecommunications

Mobile phone connectivity is imperative for regional communities to continue to thrive. In recent days, my office has been receiving much correspondence from residents in and around Ardlethan and Kamarah expressing their concerns about what they say is a degradation of mobile phone reception over recent years, in particular. They are rightly concerned about this and the shutdown of the 3G network, which has been delayed until 28 October to ensure as many people as possible can make their systems compliant. The communities in the Ardlethan area need to know that I am hearing their concerns, and I'll do absolutely everything in my power to ensure mobile connectivity in the region is improved. There has been a further degradation of service availability. I have been in contact with Telstra, and they say they are working to upgrade the service to improve connectivity.

I have been on the phone with Chris Taylor, the Telstra regional manager for ACT and southern New South Wales, and with Coolamon Shire Council general manager Tony Donoghue discussing this issue. It's impacting locals. I will certainly take this up directly with the Minister for Communications. Telstra said that it intends to upgrade the tower in the community to fix some of the issues associated with poor reception being experienced. It's not good enough that people have to get on top of silos to try to make a call, particularly if that call is to 000. With the harvest coming up, this is simply not good enough.

The Mobile Black Spot Program, which started as a coalition government initiative, invests in telecommunications infrastructure to improve mobile coverage and competition across Australia. It is an important program. Under the Mobile Black Spot Program rounds 1 to 7, the government's commitment has generated a total investment of more than $1 billion. It has delivered up to 1,400 new mobile base stations across Australia. When the coalition was in government, Riverina benefited from the program, with rounds 1 to 5 seeing 22 towers installed. They were at Bedgerabong, Billimari, Bumbaldry, Cultowa, Darbys Falls, Dirnaseer, Gooloogong, Jemalong, Koorawatha, Ladysmith, Monteagle, Mount McDonald, Murringo, Naradhan, Noonbinna, Old Wagga South Road, Temora West, Trungley Hall, Wantabadgery, Warroo, Weethalle and Woodstock. I appreciate there are problems in Yerong Creek and in the Ardlethan and Kamarah area. I will fight hard to make sure that we improve the services there and that they have the same services that are available to people in capital cities.

But I was concerned, of course, with the Improving Mobile Coverage Round, round 6, where the only seats that received mobile coverage towers were Labor seats. It's all well and good if you're in those Labor seats, but this has to be fair, equitable and across the board. It simply wasn't good enough that they had a colour-coded spreadsheet and it was all red, all Labor. With mobile phone connectivity, regional people deserve better than that.