By Jeremy Cook
Federal funding for a regional mobile infrastructure program will end in three years time, last week’s federal budget confirmed, prompting swift criticism from Nationals leader and Maranoa MP David Littleproud.
Last week’s budget papers signalled “the conclusion of the Mobile Black Spot Program” from 2027 with no funding allocated for years thereafter.
The Maranoa MP labelled that decision as “proof [the] Labor government doesn’t give a toss about regional Australia”.
Construction of at least seven mobile phone towers in the Southern Downs have been funded through the program since its inception in 2015.
The program had been brought in under the previous coalition government to improve mobile phone coverage across regional and rural Australia by funding telcos and in some cases, state and local governments, to construct mobile phone towers in black spot zones.
“Mobile phone coverage is not a given in many parts of rural, regional, and remote Australia, and having mobile service can mean the difference between life and death,” Mr Littleproud said.
“The Mobile Black Spot program sought to address this issue, but this Labor government has callously thrown this lifesaving initiative on the scrap heap,” he said.
The treasury has estimated total communications spending will decrease over the next four years according to the government’s budget papers. Though it’s unclear whether that constituted an abandonment of regional communications policy.
In its budget the government committed more than half a billion in funding towards funding a Better Connectivity Plan for Regional and Rural Australia over the next three years.
Under that plan, at least $20 million will fund an independent audit of mobile coverage in a bid to better identify black spots and as Communications Minister Michelle Rowland said, “allow the government and industry to make better investment decisions”.
“A national audit of mobile coverage is critical to identifying Australia’s coverage gaps, and highlighting where industry maps might not reflect the experience of Australians on the ground,” Ms Rowland said.
The audit launched in early-May and is scheduled to end by 2027, the same year as the Mobile Black Spot Program.
In a report released on Wednesday, the Commonwealth’s spending watchdog also dismissed claims the government had used the program to pork-barrel funding into Labor held electorates.
The opposition had accused the government last year of prioritising Labor seats in the program’s sixth round of funding, complaining that 40 of the 54 projects were in Labor electorates.
A review commissioned by the Australian National Audit Office found the round of funding “largely effective” but recommended the department “could improve its planning processes”.
