Turnbull breaks promises on mobile blackspots in Bass

Ross Hart MP, Federal Member for Bass, has slammed a decision by the Turnbull Government for failing to fund any new mobile base stations in Bass under round 2 of the Mobile Black Spot Program announced today.
“Round 2 of the program will fund 266 mobile sites around Australia, just 6 of those are in Tasmania but none in Bass despite the former Liberal member Andrew Nikolic promising on the 30th of May 2016 that the following areas would receive new mobile base stations if the Coalition were re-elected”, Mr Hart said.
• Flinders Island
• Beechford
• Lefroy
• Musselroe Bay
• Blackstone Heights
“Labor fully supports a Mobile Black Spot Program to improve mobile phone coverage in regional Australia, but the Turnbull Government is simply failing to deliver on its promise to Bass because did not elect a Liberal member.
A recent report by the Australian National Audit Office into Round 1 of the Black Spot program was damning, with findings of poor assessment criteria in terms of coverage, financial and technical return on investment.
“In Round 1 of the program, the Turnbull Government was shown to be playing politics with 80% of funded base stations put in Liberal and Nationals electorates. Sadly this has continued under the Round 2 with only 11% of funded base stations going to Labor electorates including 2 marginal electorates in Tasmania, Lyons and Braddon.
“73 blackspot areas were identified by the community in Bass and as Member of Parliament Mr Nikolic had every chance to give some sites a Priority Nomination to improve their chances of funding under round 2 of the program but he either failed to nominate them or his nomination was not robust enough.
“The few mobile sites in Bass which were funded under Round 1 have still not gone live almost a year and a half after the announcement was made. Their failure in fixing mobile black spots along with botching the NBN rollout is further evidence that the Turnbull government is incompetent when it comes to improving essential communications for Australians.” Mr Hart said.
ROSS HART MP FEDERAL MEMBER FOR BASS