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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2021-02-17 Daily Xml
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King Electorate

Ms LUETHEN (King) (14:27): My question is to the Minister for Primary Industries and Regional Development. Can the minister advise how the Marshall Liberal government is building what matters in the electorate of King?

The Hon. D.K.B. BASHAM (Finniss—Minister for Primary Industries and Regional Development) (14:28): I thank the member for King for her important question about the work of the Marshall Liberal government in building infrastructure that matters for the electorate of King. I was delighted to join the member at Gould Creek on 18 December to officially open a new mobile phone tower in her electorate. What a positive Christmas present to the community to deliver improved mobile phone reception.

Mobile phone and digital communication infrastructure has been identified as a priority infrastructure need for regional communities, equal to roads. The member for King has been a champion for fixing blackspots in her electorate. This tower has been delivered in partnership with Telstra and the Morrison commonwealth government.

The new Little Para Pass tower located at Gould Creek provides enhanced phone reception for all those people who now use One Tree Hill Road daily. Prior to this tower, there was no reception on parts of the road. Without phone reception, this is not a section of road you would want the car to break down on. Investing in mobile phones is vitally important infrastructure. It is important to have a service when caught in a disaster such as a flood or a fire.

Mobile reception is important, if you are running a business in the regions, to contact clients and contact suppliers. In this sense, investing in mobile phone infrastructure is a very significant economic development measure and helps create jobs. You cannot underestimate the extra sense of comfort it gives you to know that people have mobile phone reception on key roads they use to travel daily to and from work and to school.

Building new mobile phone towers is a real way the government can improve quality of life for families and economic opportunities for business. The Marshall Liberal government inherited a massive backlog of more than 500 mobile blackspots across regional South Australia. The former government did not recognise blackspots in the regions and in the Hills as a priority because they ignored the regions. In rounds 1 and 3 of the federal government's Black Spot program, Labor invested zero dollars. There was only one small contribution by Labor to fix mobile blackspots, and you can bet they were dragged, kicking and screaming, to spend the money.

By contrast, we have established a $10 million Mobile Phone Black Spot Fund to help address the priority blackspots. Since our election, this fund has helped leverage funding for 52 new mobile phone towers, which have been and currently are being rolled out across the state. Thanks again to our funding, we have seen towers go up in communities—

The Hon. S.C. Mullighan interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Lee!

The Hon. D.K.B. BASHAM: —as diverse as Kangaroo Island East, Cherry Gardens, Roseworthy, Kuitpo, Long Valley Road to Strathalbyn, Keilira, where the devastating fires occurred, and Wudinna—and $8.8 million has been committed to support these new phone towers across South Australia. This government will continue to invest in building the infrastructure that matters to support jobs and opportunities for regional South Australia.

Of course, there are many more blackspots remaining, and I look forward to working with the commonwealth to leverage further investment to fix additional blackspots during round 5A of the commonwealth's Black Spot program, which is currently open for applications.

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