By Parker McKenzie
Casey MP Aaron Violi has condemned the latest round of federal telecommunications funding as “blatantly political” pork barreling, while the federal government has instead argued it is just levelling the playing field after previous rounds of funding favoured Liberal and National held electorates.
In the $40 million Improving Mobile Coverage Round, announced in early March, 40 Labor electorates, 11 coalition seats and three held by independents received funding to improve mobile phone coverage through new projects. The electorate of Casey, which includes the Yarra Valley and Dandenong Ranges, was not included in the funding round.
Mr Violi said the rhetoric of the Labor Party prior to the federal election compared to their actions now is “complete hypocrisy.”
“There’s no way you can give funding to 40 Labor seats out of 54 without it being pork-barreling,” he said.
“Whether it is bushfires, whether it’s flooding, whether it’s the storms that we went through, there are more emergencies than ever before and reliable communications are vital.”
He said not being able to make consistent and reliable phone calls in modern Australia is an unacceptable situation for many local residents.
“We had examples during the June storms where people couldn’t call out for help,” he said.
“Communications is something that has to be above politics because it can be life and death. It’s an essential service that should be treated as such.”
The government, however, argues that the overrepresentation of Labor seats in the funding stream is because when the former Coalition government ran a ‘Priority Round’ of funding for the Mobile Black Spot Program in 2016, 124 of the 125 towers were in Coalition-held electorates.
Minister for Communications Michelle Rowland said she was proud to belong to a government that is improving connectivity in rural and regional Australia by substantially increasing funding for regional communications.
“The October Budget delivered $2.2 billion in funding for regional communications over five years, including $480 million for NBN’s Fixed Wireless Network expansion and upgrade,” she said.
“This is compared to approximately $1.3 billion in the previous Liberal-National Government’s Budget.”
Ms Rowland said the Improving Mobile Coverage Round is separate from other funding like the Mobile Black Spot Program.
“The entirely separate Improving Mobile Coverage Round fulfils commitments the Government took to the 2022 Federal Election to address mobile coverage issues in identified areas across the country,” she said.
“These areas were identified in Opposition by local Members and Senators working with their communities to advocate for coverage improvements, including along major regional highways and high-risk bushfire areas like the South Coast of New South Wales”.
Funding for two new mobile base stations in Silvan and Menzies Creek, promised by the Coalition if returned to government at the 2022 federal election, was announced by Ms Rowland on Thursday 21 July and dozens of new mobile towers were announced by the Victorian Government’s $255 million Connecting Victoria program in October 2022 to help address significant mobile coverage issues throughout the Yarra Valley and Dandenong Ranges, which is one of the most bushfire-prone regions in the world.
Mr Violi said more investment is still needed to ensure the communications network is resilient ahead of disasters.
“I’ll keep making sure that we as an opposition hold the government to account on their blatant political decision, but also I’ll constructively and proactively work with the government to put together some solutions to these major issues that are ongoing for our electorate,” he said.
“With the heat predicted for next year, it’s more pressing now because the statistics show us that in the last twelve to 18 months, there have been more natural disasters across the country than ever before.”
Ms Rowland said the Better Connectivity Plan for Regional and Rural Australia shows the government’s commitment to expanding mobile coverage and improving broadband.
“Our Budget Plan includes $400 million to expand mobile coverage and improve communications resilience, including by investing in future rounds of the Mobile Black Spot Program,” she said.
“The Plan also includes $200 million to fund place-based communications solutions through additional rounds of the Regional Connectivity Program.”
She said application-based programs like future rounds of the Mobile Black Spot Program will open in the coming weeks.
“I strongly encourage local residents and councils in regional areas to work with telcos to secure local funding.” Ms Rowland said.
