Mr Taylor said the announcement to invest $100 million to address mobile phone black spots across Australia was a practical, positive plan for regional Australia and one that will make a big difference to many people.

“This money will build much needed base stations and partner with local communities, state governments and telecommunications companies to ensure that the total new investment in black spots is more than this,” he said. 

“We will create an $80 million Mobile Network Expansion Programme that will improve mobile phone coverage along major transport routes, in small communities and in locations prone to experiencing natural disasters. There will be an additional $20 million for a Mobile Black Spot program to address unique mobile coverage problems - such as locations with high seasonal demand - and deliver a targeted response.

“Part of the plan is to work with the NBN - a company fully owned by Australian taxpayers - to co-locate new mobile phone base stations with many of the NBN’s fixed wireless broadband towers that are being rolled out across regional Australia - a sensible and rather obvious solution that has not happened under Labor.”

Mr Taylor said that it was well known that there were mobile phone black spots in the Southern Tablelands, especially in smaller, more isolated communities and mobile phone black spots that had been raised with him constantly, all over the electorate - and not just in remote places.

“There are areas right through the Boorowa Shire which are very badly serviced. I find this when I travel through the Shire to places like Rugby, Rye Park, Reids Flat and Frogmore however it is not limited to isolated places- there are many black spots on the Lachlan Valley Way and other main roads,” he said. 

“It has been one of the most constant complaints I have heard as I have been listening to people for the past sixteen months and I don’t need convincing; we have very poor, sporadic mobile phone reception at our place just 10 kilometres out of Goulburn.

“A poor or non-existent mobile phone reception interferes with doing any kind of business, and markedly impacts on day to day life so I am personally very excited about this initiative.”

Mr Taylor said that the last coalition government made the elimination of mobile phone black spots a national priority. However, Kevin Rudd abolished the coalition’s $2.4 billion fund that was put in place to upgrade communications in rural Australia. 

“The Labor government has wasted billions on uneconomic infrastructure but many Australians still can’t access a reliable mobile phone network,” he said.

“We are determined to fix this. This is part of our plan to grow a stronger more prosperous economy right around Australia. We believe a big part of that growth will be in the regions.”