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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2022-07-06 Daily Xml
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Mobile Phone Towers

Mr ELLIS (Narungga) (15:02): Hardly a surprising decision, Mr Speaker. I have a question for the Minister for Infrastructure. I wonder if the minister could inform the people of my electorate whether this government has any plans to fund mobile phone towers and, if so, what people in communities like Tickera might do to secure one in their town?

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS (West Torrens—Minister for Infrastructure and Transport, Minister for Energy and Mining) (15:02): Thank you very much, sir, for calling the member. I thank the member for his question. I know he is a very staunch advocate for his local community, especially in mobile phone blackspot funding. It is something he regularly engages the government with. When I say 'engage'—corners, berates.

Under the commonwealth government's Mobile Black Spot Program, co-funding from the state government's mobile phone blackspot fund has contributed to addressing 45 mobile phone blackspot locations in regional South Australia. That was a program begun by the previous government, and full credit to them for doing that, and—

Mr Pederick: Fifty-four towers.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Did you build them personally?

The Hon. J.A.W. Gardner: With his hands.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: With your hands?

Mr Pederick: You built one in 16 years.

The SPEAKER: The member for Hammond is warned for a second time. The minister has the call.

Mr Whetstone interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Chaffey! The minister has the call.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: I think you have done enough damage today, mate, if I were you.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Promote him.

The SPEAKER: Order!

Ms Clancy interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Elder! The minister has the call.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: The commonwealth government investment was over $6.49 million over that period, the telecommunications provider put in $10.21 million and the state government investment was $8.2 million.

I note that the state government's investment was larger than the commonwealth government's, whose responsibility the Telecommunications Act is—which says a lot about the deal-making capacity of the previous government. However, to date the 34 mobile blackspot solutions have been completed, with 11 sites that have been delivered. Of those still to be completed, two are in the Adelaide Hills and the Fleurieu, one is in the Barossa, one is in the Limestone Coast, three are in the Far North, three on Eyre Peninsula, one is in the Clare Valley and one is in the Mid North. The mobile network extension devices pilot program was valued at $680,000, which was delivered by Telstra, and that is to be done in the Adelaide Hills to address mobile phone reception and localised coverage loss.

This is a good program, and the Treasurer is very keen for me to let the crossbench know that this is something he is looking at and something we are considering through the budget process. Obviously, we would like to see the contribution of the commonwealth government be larger, given that they are solely responsible for this package, and we don't want to see the commonwealth government retreat from its responsibilities and push it onto the South Australian taxpayer, as had been done previously.

Nevertheless, it is an important program and your advocacy—including that of the Speaker and other regional members—is very important to make sure that this program keeps apace to make sure that we can keep regional communities connected because it is so important for business and communication, so I thank the member for his question.

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