15 June 2016
BERT VAN MANEN, MEMBER FOR FORDE
E&EO.
EDDIE SHANNON:
Good morning to you, with Eddie on 101 FM, and of course the election’s drawing to a close, well, reasonably quickly now after a fairly lengthy period, and we have this morning Bert van Manen with us, the Liberal MP for Forde. Good morning to you, Bert.
BERT VAN MANEN:
Good morning Eddie, and I’ve also got with me the Minister for Communications, Senator Mitch Fifield.
EDDIE SHANNON:
Oh, excellent. So what’s the Senator doing in, in Forde today?
BERT VAN MANEN:
Oh, I’ll let the Senator let, tell you.
EDDIE SHANNON:
Good morning to you, Senator Mitch. How are you?
MITCH FIFIELD:
Great, Eddie. How are you?
EDDIE SHANNON:
Very, very well, thank you, very well. So, you’ve, you’re visiting the, the fine, well the fine electorate of Forde, and what’s been happening down there for you?
MITCH FIFIELD:
Well, we’ve got an important announcement to make today. I think your listeners would know just how dependent they are on mobile phones and how we all like to take the mobile phone network for granted. But there are some mobile black spots in the network and it’s important that we address those. Something different that we’re doing compared to our predecessors is we’re actually seeking to address mobile black spots. The previous Government didn’t spend a dollar on mobile black spots over six years, so we’ve allocated a total of about $220 million nation-wide.
And great to be able to announce that, as a result of Bert’s efforts, there will be new mobile base stations at Cedar Creek, North Maclean, and at WongaWallen, and this is so important not only so, you know, families can keep in touch as they go about their business, but also for times of emergency and natural disaster. It’s critical that people are able to connect.
EDDIE SHANNON:
Well, absolutely. I mean, one of the things that, whether it’s in personal life or business, communication is the key to, to most of our daily lives.
MITCH FIFIELD:
That’s absolutely right and, you know, you will have heard Bert and a number of us talk a fair bit about the transitioning economy and one of the important ways to help underpin that is to make sure that we’ve got good telecommunications.
EDDIE SHANNON:
So when does, so when will all this take effect, this will be prior to the election or after?
MITCH FIFIELD:
After the election. What we do essentially is put money on the table and say to the telecommunications operators, come forward with a proposition. Because it’s not government that builds mobile base stations, it’s the telcos. And in areas where it wouldn’t ordinarily be commercial for them to establish mobile base stations we put money on the table and say, come forward and we’ll partner with you. So, what would need to happen is to go through that process and then the telcos would need to get the relevant planning approvals.
EDDIE SHANNON:
So, Senator, is it a bit like a tender?
MITCH FIFIELD:
Yeah, it’s a bit, it’s a bit like a tender. So, we put our money on the table. The telcos put their money on the table and we pick the person who can provide good coverage.
EDDIE SHANNON:
Superb. So, Bert, if you’re still listening, you had some discussions earlier in the week with the, with the Education Minister, of course, Simon Birmingham, how did that go?
BERT VAN MANEN:
Oh look, it went terrifically well and we met with principals and we also visited Eagleby Learning Centre and it was a great opportunity for Simon to see the great work that has been done in all our schools across the electorate but also more importantly to get some feedback from those, from those principals as to how, where the Federal level can assist them in providing better education to their students.
EDDIE SHANNON:
And are you also up here in Logan this morning with the Chamber of Commerce, were you, the early morning brekkie was it?
BERT VAN MANEN:
Ah yes, the Chamber of Commerce Candidate’s Forum this morning and it went very well it was very well run, it was respectfully run and we had a good cross-section of candidates from the major parties and across the electorate.
EDDIE SHANNON:
So, but how is it going? What’s the feel for you now? We’re obviously only two and a half weeks or so away from the, from the Federal Election. Your area has, of course, been reasonably marginal over the years. Are you confident?
BERT VAN MANEN:
Well, Eddie you, you always have to believe at the outset that you can win, but you have to ensure that you get out there and do the work day to day, being available to your community. You can never ever take people for granted, and that’s what we’ve been doing for the last 3 years. So, what we’re doing in this campaign period and there’s 17 days to go to polling day, is what we’ve done for the last 3 years and that is being out and about, available to the community, answering their questions, speaking with them about their concerns, and we also had yesterday Kelly O’Dwyer, the Small Business Minister here, meeting with some of our small business operators, so they, she could hear first hand on the benefits of our small business tax package for them but also still ongoing concerns they have about other areas.
EDDIE SHANNON:
Yeah, and I mean I guess that at this stage of the Campaign it’s about dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s now as you get closer, Bert.
BERT VAN MANEN:
Ah, yes it is, but we also have a number of announcements that we, we have rolled out. Specific around Loganholme Lightning FC and a $350,000 dollar commitment if the Government’s re-elected to helping them grow and expand their club houses, club house. They are a club with now nearly 900 soccer players and growing tremendously, but equally we’ve got other things from an environment perspective, because we recognise that our local environment is very important. We’ve had, obviously, some major announcement around the Barrier Reef, but also our local environmental issues are important too. So, with Minister Greg Hunt last week we announced $200,000 towards a project for the Logan and Albert Rivers, to start working towards cleaning those up and improving the water quality, and doing that through improving the river banks and cleaning up the river banks, the weeds and rubbish, and re-vegetating the river banks, as well as our Solar Communities announcement which was $100,000 for a number of, for 6 community groups to put solar panels on their roofs, so there’s a whole range of things we’ve been doing over the course of the campaign and the last three years to, to assist, grow our community.
EDDIE SHANNON:
So Bert, where do we go from here? I mean obviously you, you’ve been up in, up in Logan this morning. For the next 17 days you’ve got a fairly rugged schedule, I’d imagine?
BERT VAN MANEN:
Ah yes, we’ve got our usual schedule of door knocking, community events, but also pre-poll’s open now so I’ll be spending some time down at pre-poll speaking with people who are coming to vote, and looking for their support.
EDDIE SHANNON:
Fabulous. Well, Bert, all the very best and Senator Mitch, lovely to talk to you this morning, I hope, I hope things go well for you all, so on the hustings, and at the end of the day you know, you get the satisfactory results that you’re both looking for. Go forward, go hard guys, and good luck for July 2.
BERT VAN MANEN:
Thanks Eddie, pleasure to talk to you, and hope everybody has a terrific day.
EDDIE SHANNON:
Thanks guys.
MITCH FIFIELD:
Thanks, Eddie.
[ends]