KEVIN HOGAN, MEMBER FOR PAGE
14 June 2016
E&EO
KEVIN HOGAN:
Look, great to have Mitch Fifield here today who is the Minister for Communications as well as the Arts. We’ve just opened, we’re about to open a mobile phone base station here in Clunes which is going to help within the 5 kilometre base of not only Clunes but the surrounds. It also follows on, and Mitch will talk about this more, the 16 base stations are going to be built across our region over the next couple of years which are going to cover 100 of the 141 black spots we’ve identified in our region. Thanks Mitch.
MITCH FIFIELD:
Thanks Kevin, great to be here. The Mobile Black Spot Programme is a really important one because we take communication and connectivity for granted. There are black spots around the nation in the mobile phone network and it’s important that we seek to address those. It’s important for tourism, it’s important for business, it’s important for families to stay in touch but it’s also really important at times of disaster and emergencies, so it’s terrific that we’ve been able to give $100 million nation-wide for the first round of the programme, and Clunes is part of that. We’ve also announced a second and a third round, $120 million in total, in addition to $100 million, and that means nation-wide that we will be addressing many black spots, and it’s good news for this area that we’re underway.
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