Telecommunications Legislation Amendment (Strengthening Communications in Natural Disasters) Bill 2026

Ms SHARKIE (Mayo) (10:09): I second the motion. I very much support the Telecommunications Legislation Amendment (Strengthening Communications in Natural Disasters) Bill 2026 and this motion, and I thank the member for Indi for championing regional telecommunications. My community understands the very real threat of bushfires.

We've lived through the fear, uncertainty and heartbreak that come with fires—not just our homes but our entire townships. Telecommunications outages, due to the loss of power or destruction of infrastructure during such natural disasters, ultimately cost lives. Earlier this year, the fire at Deep Creek reminded us how quickly conditions can change.

That one actually threatened the township of Cape Jervis and vital ferry infrastructure. We've had, during my time as a member, devastating fires on Kangaroo Island, in the Adelaide Hills and at Cherry Gardens, and, just before I was the member, there was one at Sampson Flat. But the disaster lives on for a long time.

I think one thing that common to all of those is that our telecommunications failed us when we needed them the most, and that's why this bill is so important. It will respond to address failures of mobile networks. It will require ACMA to set minimum-power and backup-power requirements, because that's so critical.

The electricity gets cut to save us during bushfires, from a danger point of view, but then, with so many people on the network, the towers go down very, very quickly. So it is an excellent requirement to have 24-hour battery backup, which will, in many cases, allow the immediate danger to pass, and then we can get those mobile telephone tower batteries swapped over and hopefully continue without losing telecommunications, so it's incredibly important.

The temporary disaster roaming period, in which a person in a disaster affected area can temporarily connect to another network, will be a game changer in regional Australia. Many people in my electorate, ridiculously, need to carry both Optus and Telstra—two separate phones—because in some parts of the electorate Optus works best, but in other parts it's Telstra, so being able to swap across carriers will be incredibly important.

And this bill will enable the minister to make rules requiring temporary disaster roaming in declared emergency situations. I think one of the most innovative ideas in this bill is the requirement for low-level satellite telephone calls and connectivity in our community centres. The member for Mayo is completely correct—sorry, the member for Indi is completely correct.

The member for Mayo might be too! But certainly the member for Indi is. Dr Haines: We're a unity ticket on this one!

Ms SHARKIE: We're a unity ticket on this one. When there is a disaster, people go to their community centre; roll out swags, if they've got them; and get some food. Often, people leave with their absolutely basic documents and photos, if they can pull them together in time.

But when they go to their community centres they find that there's no way they can make a phone call to let people in their family and friendship circle know that they are safe. So having that connectivity in our community centres is important. I'd like to spend my last 30 seconds recognising a wonderful lady, the late Jill Bottrill, who basically crossed the lines to get into the Lobethal community and on Kangaroo Island with NBN trucks just so that my community could have somewhere to charge their phones and be able to make a phone call.

But that didn't happen for, I think, at least 48 hours after we had the Black Summer fires. This will be a game changer for regional Australia. I really do urge the government to put the shoulder to the wheel and make this happen for us.

The SPEAKER: The time allotted for this debate has expired. The debate is adjourned and the resumption of the debate will be made an order of the day for the next sitting.