032/05
6 April 2005
Gallop Government should be held accountable for election promise on Wireless North
Western Australians are being badly let down by their State Government which is backing away from a critical election promise just weeks after its re-election, Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts, Senator Helen Coonan, said.
In Broome today for a communications forum, Senator Coonan said the Gallop Government should be held accountable and meet its commitment to provide mobile phone coverage on the North West Coastal and Great Northern Highways.
A media release issued today by the WA State Development Minister, Alan Carpenter, confirms that the Gallop Government never intended to meet its election commitment to implement the 'Wireless North' project.
"I think West Australians should be rightly disappointed if just a few weeks after the election the Gallop Government is backing away from its commitment," Senator Coonan said.
"The Gallop Government said on 2 December 2004 that Wireless North was going ahead and that it had committed $3.2 million to provide mobile phone coverage on the North West Coastal and Great Northern Highways. The WA Government also publicly announced that it would be calling for expressions of interest to develop the necessary infrastructure.
"There was nothing in the WA Government's media release of 2 December to indicate that the pre-election commitment is in any way conditional on Commonwealth funding.
"Rather than trying to improve communications services, the Gallop Government has hoodwinked the community and is making a lame and entirely baseless attempt to blame the Commonwealth."
"The Gallop Government received great adulation before the election for making a unilateral decision to implement the Wireless North project and they should stick to their commitment.
"I too welcomed the fact that a State Government was prepared to commit funding to improve telecommunications services. Now that the WA election is out of the way, I have been waiting to see a call for expressions of interest for this project," said Senator Coonan.
"Telstra has advised me that they will respond to such a call for expressions of interest and in building Wireless North in partnership with the State Government.
"The Howard Government remains committed to improving telecommunications services in regional Australia. We have provided more than $140 million to assist the rollout of mobile phone infrastructure in regional areas. We have recently concluded a tender process for additional terrestrial mobile phone coverage in regional areas, including in Western Australia, awarding a $15.6 million contract to Telstra. We are still in the process of rolling this out.
"We have also recently extended the Satellite Phone Subsidy Scheme which provides up to $1,500 to people who live or work in areas without terrestrial mobile phone coverage.
"The Gallop Government has got an election promise to keep and they should keep it or come clean about deceiving the public before the election."