Question Time

Mobile Black Spot Program

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY (Leader of the Opposition) (14:50): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for Science and Information Economy a question about black spot phone towers.

Leave granted.

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: As I have mentioned before in this place, every other state government contributed funds to round 1 of the federal government's mobile black spot program, with the exception of the South Australian government. As a result South Australia only received 11 out of a possible 499 phone towers, approximately 2 per cent of the towers that were on offer.

Last week the government announced it would commit $2 million to round 2 of this program: $1 million from the minister and $1 million from the Regional Development Fund. The South Australian government's contribution still remains grossly inadequate. In round 1, just to remind people, New South Wales contributed $24 million for 144 upgrades, Victoria $21 million for 110 towers, Queensland $10 million for 68 upgrades, Western Australia $32 million for 130 and Tasmania $350,000 for 31. So, just over $104 million has been contributed by all state governments, yet the South Australian government has only committed $2 million, just under 2 per cent of the government funding. Last week, when the minister made the announcement in his press release, he said:

Given we are contributing almost six times as much as Tasmania, and they receive funding for 31 sites, we would expect the government to fund a proportionate number of new base stations reflecting our investment.

By that statement is the minister now admitting that, after 14 years of Labor, we are in a worse state than Tasmania and now deserve special treatment not afforded to any other mainland state? My question to the minister is: exactly how many towers do you expect to get with your $2 million?

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Minister for Employment, Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and Reconciliation, Minister for Manufacturing and Innovation, Minister for Automotive Transformation, Minister for Science and Information Economy) (14:32): I thank the honourable member for his question and thank him and his party for completely and utterly vacating the field on this topic. They have not made a single announcement about what they would do if it was up to them—they do not understand the idea of an alternative government. They give no alternative whatsoever.

We have said quite fairly that we expect to be treated no worse than Tasmania was treated. The mobile black spot program is not up to us, it is up to the federal government to make the decision about what is funded. So, in terms of how many we get, well, that will be up to the federal government.

The Hon. D.W. Ridgway interjecting:

The Hon. K.J. MAHER: You know what? I can just envisage now, should Malcolm Turnbull's government be re-elected (and it is up to them to decide where these mobile towers will go), do you think we will see the Liberal Party in South Australia advocating for this state? Not on past performance; they will not be advocating for South Australia, they will not be putting pressure on their federal colleagues to make sure South Australia is properly looked after. It is not unreasonable that we would expect to be treated just as well as the federal government treated Tasmania in the last round of mobile black spot funding.

As the temporary Leader of the Opposition, the Hon. David Ridgway, pointed out, Tasmania received 31 sites for a $350,000 contribution last time. We have contributed almost six times that amount—almost six times that amount—and we will see what the federal government does in relation to treating us at least as well as they treated Tasmania.