Regional mobile infrastructure inquiry to hear from Indigenous communities, grain growers, miners and more

FINDING collaborative ways to fund improvements to mobile phone infrastructure services across regional and remote Australia will be the focus of the public hearings in Adelaide, Alice Springs and Perth this week.

The House Communications and the Arts Committee will also hear evidence from state and territory governments, Indigenous communities and First Nations media, business chambers, councils, health services, fire and emergency services and community groups on the impacts of unreliable mobile coverage.

The hearings are investigating how to improve the reliability in South Australia, Northern Territory and Western Australia for its parliamentary inquiry into regional mobile carrier infrastructure.

Committee Chair, Brian Mitchell MP, outlined the majority of mobile infrastructure was not co-located, especially in regional areas. The committee wants to better understand why the rates of co-location for Australia’s major mobile providers dramatically decline as they move from urban to regional and remote areas.

The committee will be seeking views on whether co-investment is the best tool to encourage multiple telecommunications providers in regional areas to invest in and share ‘multi-carrier’ mobile towers to improve the range and reliability of their services.

Public hearing in AdelaideWitnesses: SA Department for Energy and Mining, SA Forest Products Association, Grain Producers SA, Outback Communities Authority, District Council of Mount Remarkable, emergency services and community groupsTime and date: 9:30am to 1pm ACST 15 MayLocation: Balcony Room, House of Assembly, Parliament of South Australia

Public hearing in Alice SpringsWitnesses: First Nations Media Australia, Indigenous Community Television, Central Desert Regional Council, Alice Springs Town Council, and community groupsTime and date: 8:30am to 12:15pm ACST 16 MayLocation: Spinifex Room, Double Tree by Hilton Hotel, 82 Barrett Drive

Public hearing in PerthWitnesses: WA Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development, WA Local Government Association, AHA WA, Bunbury business chamber, WA Country Health Service, WA Grains Group and Fortescue Metals GroupTime and date: 9:30am to 1pm AWST 17 MayLocation: CPO, Exchange Tower, 2 The Esplanade

The inquiry’s terms of reference and information about the Committee may be found on the Committee’s webpage.

 

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