16 April 2025

The Albanese Labor Government continues to make significant investment in safety and resilience against natural disasters in the Gilmore electorate, upgrading two telecommunications services as part of the Mobile Network Hardening Program Round 3.

More than 300 upgrades will be delivered across Australia in regional, remote and outer urban areas to strengthen mobile telecommunications services to reduce the risk of outages and improve restoration times during and after a natural disaster.

The mobile tower at Lake Conjola will receive a battery capacity upgrade and the Cambewarra Lookout Communication Tower will benefit from a new generator.

This is a critical boost for local emergency service personnel who operate auxiliary power systems and support the rapid power restoration to critical communications infrastructure during and after natural disasters. Relevant decisions about the upgrades were made prior to  the caretaker period.

It builds on the recent announcement to extend critical community Wi-Fi services at eighteen evacuation centres in Gilmore for a further four years.

A re-elected Albanese Labor Government will also deliver a Universal Outdoor Mobile Obligation on telecommunications providers to provide basic mobile connectivity and Triple Zero access even when land-based networks are down through low earth orbit satellites.

The Albanese Labor Government will not waste a day in progressing this important reform. Legislation to enable the establishment of the Universal Outdoor Mobile Obligation will be introduced to the Parliament with a re-elected Labor Government.

These investments are in stark contrast to the risk Peter Dutton poses to 41,000 public servants, which would mean the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) losing at least a quarter of its staff.

Personnel cuts to NEMA would severely limit its ability to protect and support disaster-impacted Australians. 
 
The Albanese Labor Government established NEMA, which provides a range of essential services, including: 

• Running the 24/7 National Situation Room which provides all-hazards monitoring and reporting and informs decisions before, during and after crises 
• Deploying the National Emergency Stockpile of generators, sandbags and temporary housing (established by the Albanese Government) 

• Managing the more than $13 billion in Disaster Recovery Funding and providing on the ground support for communities recovering from natural disasters. 

The Albanese Labor Government has spent billions of dollars helping communities get back on their feet after disaster has struck. 
 
Peter Dutton has called these investments “wasteful spending” and we know he will cut them. 

Peter Dutton’s cuts put local people at risk – he must rule them out. 

Attributable to the Minister for Emergency Management, Jenny McAllister

 “The Albanese Labor Government has made significant and needed investments in emergency management to help communities prepare, respond and recover from natural disasters. 

“The new upgrades at Lake Conjola and Cambewarra Lookout Tower will strengthen the resilience of telecommunications services which will benefit local communities during a disaster.

“They are the latest in a series of investments in Gilmore including extending critical community Wi-Fi services at eighteen evacuation centres for four more years keeping locals safe and connected.

“We know that Peter Dutton’s cuts will mean that the Australian Government will not be able to give Australians the help they need and deserve when a disaster strikes. 

“I call on Peter Dutton to rule out any cuts to emergency management today.” 

Attributable to Fiona Phillips MP, Federal Member for Gilmore:

 “We all know the massive impact that the power and communications outages had on local people during the Black Summer bushfires.

“Since then, I have been committed to better preparing our communities and improving our local resilience so that we can ensure communication channels stay up during a crisis.

“These essential upgrades, coupled with other projects like improved Wi-Fi across local evacuation centres, enhanced resilience in our community halls, and new and upgraded RFS stations at Lake Conjola and Manyana to name a few, are great news for local people.

“These improvements will save lives and support the critical work of our amazing emergency services.

“I am so proud to have delivered these projects and more, and I will keep working hard to ensure the South Coast is better prepared in times of natural disaster.”