Thursday, 10 February 2022

Clyde North mobile phone coverage

Mr BATTIN (Gembrook) (09:42): Mobile phones these days are no longer just a way to communicate, they are part of our life. They are the way that we can do work and the way that we can get access to education. They are entirely part of our life now and an essential part of our life. It is disappointing that in Clyde North there are so many parts of that community—a new community—that have zero access to mobile phones at the moment. Telstra, if you look on their maps, will say 4G is green the whole way through Clyde North. I can assure you an amount of people are coming into my office now that area is coming into the new electorate of Berwick and complaining about the fact that they cannot get access on their mobile phones—they drop out.

At the moment more and more people are working from home. This is a problem that needs to be fixed. Telstra, Vodafone, Optus—I do not care who goes down there and has a look at it. I have promised on behalf of my community I will contact all of those telecommunications organisations and ensure we can get it back. Young children are doing education from home. Whilst they are at home they are expected to be on laptops. Most of them will be using a mobile phone these days as a hotspot or having something on their phone to connect through to the system. It is so unfair that kids in these areas, when they are moving in, do not have access to vital services for education. If they are at home in isolation for seven days, they should have the same access that every other student has. You cannot develop these areas and then not give them the infrastructure to make sure they can survive in a modern world.