Tuesday, 31 October 2023

 Michael GALEA (South-Eastern Metropolitan) (13:01): (500) My question is for the Minister for Government Services. Can the minister update me on the progress of the Connecting Victoria initiative, which is funding the rollout of mobile phone towers in the City of Casey? Last week a private contractor cut through NBN cables without authorisation whilst excavating, which led to an NBN outage of more than 24 hours across large parts of Clyde North and Clyde. These areas already suffer from almost non-existent mobile coverage, so this outage resulted in unacceptable isolation for thousands of my constituents. Noting that telecommunications is a federal area of responsibility and the placement of phone towers is subject to council planning processes, I am pleased that the state government has stepped in with the Connecting Victoria initiative in an attempt to speed up the rollout of these towers. I would also like to acknowledge the member for Bass’s long advocacy on this issue. Last week the member for Bass and I held a street stall, along with the federal member for Holt, where we heard firsthand from residents who are rightly angry about this issue. Some missed telehealth appointments, others could not work and one even missed an online exam. To reiterate, can the minister please update me on the rollout of the Connecting Victoria initiative?