Tuesday, 20 February 2024

Ministers statements: fire and storm events

Gabrielle WILLIAMS (Dandenong – Minister for Government Services, Minister for Consumer Affairs, Minister for Public and Active Transport) (14:25): I rise to update the house on the efforts of the Allan Labor government to work with and encourage telecommunications carriers and the federal government to improve service levels and the resilience of Victoria’s telecommunications network. Last week we saw extreme weather cause widespread power outages, which in turn caused outages across the telecommunications network. Firstly, I want to thank all of our emergency services for their incredible work over the last week and of course the many impacted communities who have pulled together so firmly in such difficult times. Over 500,000 Victorians lost power and as a result were also unable to access those vital telco services. Concerningly, for all of us in this place, some communities were also unable to access even 000.

As members would know, our telco carriers are private businesses, so I have met with the executives from each of our major telcos and reinforced to them the criticality of their services and the need for them to do everything they can to restore connectivity as quickly as possible. I am now advised that mobile coverage has been largely restored across the state but that there may be reduced service levels in some areas while mains power is still being restored.

These recent events again remind us how essential telco services are, and that is why we have made it clear to the Commonwealth that better regulation of telcos as critical infrastructure must be a priority, as is Commonwealth investment in Victoria’s telecommunication infrastructure. I have sought a meeting with the federal minister to reinforce this yet again.

The reality is, though, that even outside of emergencies many of these communities experience poor coverage. That is why we have invested $540 million in the Connecting Victoria program to fast-track improved mobile and broadband connectivity across many communities, and while we are focused on connecting Victorians – (Time expired)