Thursday, 5 March 2026

 Gaelle BROAD (Northern Victoria) (12:50): (2214) My question is to the Minister for Emergency Services. As the minister would be aware, the Mount Alexander transmission site provides television and radio services to Bendigo, Castlemaine and surrounding communities and suffered significant damage during the January bushfires. Reports indicate that antennae, power systems and backup infrastructure were destroyed and that temporary arrangements are in place, and the full restoration may take a considerable amount of time. Many residents are currently receiving only a limited set of channels, and some broadcast services remain unavailable. What steps is the government taking to support the rapid restoration of full broadcast services, when will all services be restored and what work is being done to prevent a similar outage from occurring again, which left residents unable to access news, emergency information and public broadcasting?