Tuesday, 26 November 2024

 Nick STAIKOS (Bentleigh) (19:09): (944) My adjournment matter this evening is for the attention of the Minister for Government Services and concerns an apparent lack of mobile coverage in and around the Centre Road, East Bentleigh, shopping strip. The action I seek is that the minister raises this matter with the Commonwealth government’s Minister for Communications the Honourable Michelle Rowland. Residents of East Bentleigh have raised with me the difficulties that they experience when trying to use their devices at the local shopping strip. As a resident of East Bentleigh myself – and I have got my electorate office on Centre Road, East Bentleigh – I experience similar difficulties. People have trouble looking up something on their phone at the local Ritchies supermarket, for example, but also experience difficulty in loading their e-script at the local pharmacy or transferring funds between accounts. It is a shopping centre, after all. Often you have to walk a fair distance up Centre Road in order to get a strong enough signal to do these basic tasks. When you look at coverage maps online, there does appear to be quite a noticeable gap in 5G coverage in this particular location of East Bentleigh. I ask that the minister raises this matter with her federal counterpart and provides advice.