Telecommunications Legislation Amendment (Universal Outdoor Mobile Obligation) Bill 2025

Mr MATT SMITH (Leichhardt) (16:50): I'm very glad to rise and speak on the Telecommunications Legislation Amendment (Universal Outdoor Mobile Obligation) Bill 2025. I live in the Far North, where 97 per cent of the electorate does not have mobile coverage. This can be quite handy if I want to get off the grid for a little while.

It can also be quite terrifying. I was in Weipa. I wanted to duck down to Aurukun for a day trip, so I did.

The wet season started, the PDR was doing what the PDR does—it basically becomes ice. I slipped and slid my way to Aurukun. I ran a basketball clinic.

I handed out some shoes. I caught up with a few mates—had a good time. The monsoon trough arrived.

I was informed that I would have to move quickly if I was going to beat the monsoon trough out and get back over the Myall Creek to get back into Weipa. The PDR in that condition is not something that you move quickly on. You lose the back end of your ute real fast.

But, try as I did, I got to the Myall Creek with zero reception and had to make a choice—a choice that I wouldn't make now but a choice that, when I was younger and reckless, I made. I crossed that creek. Ten minutes later, it was impassable.

Had I waited a moment longer, I would have been stuck. I couldn't have got back to Aurukun. The roads behind me were cut.

I couldn't have gone forward. The roads in front of me would have been cut. There was no mobile service.

I would have spent the night there; the Myall drains pretty quickly. It wouldn't have been the end of the world. Mobile service can mean the end of the world for people, as the member for Riverina rightly pointed out.

Women fleeing domestic and family violence—I had a story relayed to me where a woman went and hid in the creek because she couldn't get a triple zero call. I don't have to tell you what lives in my creeks in Far North Queensland. That call is the difference between life and death.

It is also the difference between economic opportunity, education and health care. Really remote areas such as mine—which you cannot drive through and which require planes, boats and helicopters in some instances because there are not airfields to get to—rely on telecommunications for their education. They rely on telecommunications to be able to speak to potential buyers, to get their stock sorted, to make sure that their health care is taken care of.

Telehealth is so important. It is new to the game, but it is making a massive, massive difference. Unfortunately for a lot of our communities, once you leave 500 or 600 metres from town, it's zip, zero, zilch.

I was driving back from Cooktown about 10 days ago. I passed six cars between Cooktown and Mareeba coming the other way. If something had happened to me—if I'd got a flat, if I'd hit some water—it could have been hours before anyone found me.

There was no mobile communication. That's why this is important. That's why we are putting our money where our mouths are.

This is going to make a difference. It's a nice saying that, if you can see the sky, you'll get reception, but it's true. The advances in technology are making the difference right now.

We've gone and seen Telstra. We've seen the work that they're doing already with he satellites coming over the cape. We know that already in some parts where there was no reception before people are now able to send and receive text messages, and this is only going to improve because of the obligation.

The word is obligation. The member for Riverina is right. We carry this country.

The regions are getting it done. We've got the space. We've got the mines.

We've got the agriculture. We've got culture. We've got everything.

We deserve what the people of the cities get. We deserve to have our children have good access to the internet. We deserve, should they wish to do university online, that they can.

We deserve people to be able to leave their towns and still make calls if something happens. We are the engine room and we had been ignored. This is going to level the playing field so that all of the potential that I see every day, all of the potential that we all see in our regions, can be properly realised.

It's going to make a huge difference. We've got to the point now where the ability to be constantly available is basically a human right. This bill is being put forth because we take the regions seriously, because we understand the potential that they have and because we have a moral obligation to do so.

It will get through and it will be great. The work is already being done. We are the party of the regions now.

We have more regional members than the Nationals. Mr McCormack: You were going so well! Mr MATT SMITH: I thank the member for Riverina for his compliment.

We almost got through six minutes without him heckling me. The fact is that we now have a large regional presence on this side of the House. We are making our voices heard and we are making a difference for the regions, not just in telecommunications but in roads, in airports and in those things that our communities need—the things that make a difference on a day-to-day basis, the things that allow our health care, our education and our economic development to increase and expand so that we can be the powerhouse that we've so often dreamed of becoming.

The part of Australia that people forget is the part of Australia that is carrying us. I look forward to not being out of reception as I'm driving to Cooktown or to Coen. I look forward to hearing about the kids who are doing distance education on their phones and are able to do it when they go bush, go for a bit of a wander or just go maybe 400 or 500 metres out of town.

I look forward to the improved health outcomes. Our health outcomes, particularly in my remote, regional and Indigenous communities, are some of the worst in the world. Telehealth—the ability to have those quick answers on hand with properly trained Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health practitioners there to help deliver that, in some cases, life-saving medication or treatment—is going to be really important because you can't always fly in and fly out a doctor.

Sometimes you need the answer there and then. This will allow that to happen. I look forward to the increased economic opportunity and activity.

There is so much potential along the PDR to have little bakeries, gift shops, cultural exhibitions and art galleries, but, without that access to telecommunications, there's not much point. This will open up that door too. It opens up the economy of the cape.

We desperately need this. It is something that has been on the radar for so, so long. The member for Riverina spoke of fairness.

There's nothing more fair than giving mobile coverage to everybody, which is what this bill tries to do. The 97 per cent of my electorate will thank us. No, there are not a lot of people living there.

It is sparse and it is empty, but it is dangerous and it is rugged. When things go wrong, they go wrong in a hurry. I enjoy my solitude on the road.

I enjoy not getting emails for four or five hours as I move between the towns, but I think overall it's better if I do. It's better for the community, it's better for health, it's better for every single one of those kids and it's safer. We're enjoying a renaissance in the Far North.

We're enjoying the investment in what we are. We're enjoying the culture. We're enjoying the lifestyle.

This is just going to make it so much better for everyone. When you're out shooting a pig, you can take a photo and send it back to the boys. We can compare pigs.

That's awesome. You don't have to drag it back. You're better off leaving the carcase there; the other pigs will come and clear it up later.

Mr Birrell: Make sure it's dead first. Mr MATT SMITH: You've got to make sure it's dead first. I don't know what pigs you're shooting.

You've got to keep on top of them. With this bill and with the opportunities presented, if you can see the sky, you'll have mobile coverage—from Cairns, where there are still dead spots, right the way to the Torres Strait, where, as we've recently heard, mobile reception is critical for our border security. The Torres Strait Islanders like to record any illegal incursions and send back to Border Watch.

They will be able to do that more efficiently in between the islands to make that our borders are safe, to make sure that our communities are safe. I commend this bill to the House.