Shadow Minister for Regional Development, Local Government and Territories - Shadow Minister for Regional Communications- Transcript - Interview Sky News Regional - 5 June 25

DR ANNE WEBSTER MP

SHADOW MINISTER FOR REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT, LOCAL GOVERNMENT AND TERRITORIES
SHADOW MINISTER FOR REGIONAL COMMUNICATIONS

FEDERAL MEMBER FOR MALLEE

TRANSCRIPT

SEAL

Better connectivity was one of The Nationals’ big pushes for regional Australia this federal election and joining us live is the newly appointed Shadow Regional Communications Minister - and Development too -  the list goes on with your credentials! Well done, Dr Anne Webster and you're wasting no time at all, you've met with the Telstra Executive for technology engagement. What was the outcome?

WEBSTER

Thank you, Jaynie. Yes, I did actually meet with the Telstra executives here in Mildura last week and it was before I was even announced. So, you know, it just happened to be the stars aligning, so to speak. It was excellent to hear of their announcement that they're working with Starlink to ensure satellite to phone connectivity, it's just music to my ears. As someone who has an electorate where I ‘drop out’ all the time and people who live in the electorate, whether it's farms or smaller towns - even worse since  3G closed down particularly - connectivity became harder and harder, so it makes perfect sense. I've actually been saying it for some time, that device-to-satellite and satellite-to-device, of course, is just the perfect answer going forward. Right now, they are trialling the texting component with Samsung Galaxy S25s as the trial phone and I kind of think of it as a carrier pigeon with a note travelling at 25,000 kilometres an hour and sometimes those notes drop out and so they're developing and solving problems all along the way. They're expecting that  we'll be able to make voice calls on satellite connected phones - and no, you don't need a new phone, it'll be to everyone's phone - by 2027.  I certainly am pushing for that. But of course, in The Nationals, David Littleproud has - I'm very glad to say - given me the responsibility to develop our Universal Service Obligation for our telcos, which inevitably will be around satellite communications.

SEAL

Because it was a not-negotiable, wasn't it? The connectivity? And as you mentioned it's it's really vital for so many people to to have it. It's quite surprising really that we have this issue in the first place, would you say?

WEBSTER

Yeah, absolutely, I mean when you consider that farmers now on their massive tractors and harvest, trading and their exports in the global export market using digital devices and technology, that is just incredible to see. If they can't get connectivity, the point is some have solved it by putting a satellite Starlink dish on their own tractors. The thing is that this should be available for all, universally available as a service to every Australian, wherever we live.

SEAL

And on another subject, Dr Anne Webster, farmers are talking to us on a daily basis. They're asking us to push governments to provide more funding, whether it's [DRFA] Category D for the floods in NSW, we spoke to the mayor yesterday in Kimba, SA he wasn't satisfied with the funding from the government, of course, welcomed by all but needing more.  What else do we need besides funding and boots on the ground? Which of course we have seen, but we're hearing it's not enough.

WEBSTER

Look, when you're looking at a major disaster like the flooding in NSW, you absolutely need enough boots on ground.  That clean up is … I don't live in a flood ravaged area, largely, we have occasional minor floods, but we certainly have nothing like Lismore or Quilpie, I know from my colleagues that the work is immense and the cleanup is immense and the more boots on the ground the better - and funding too to assist families and businesses just to be able to survive through this whole period. I think it takes up to 18 months to do the clean up, so that support is essential, it doesn't surprise me that the Labor government are not contributing enough to that, both at state and federal level, and I would certainly, my colleague Ross Caddell, who is responsible now in the Nats for Emergency Services, I'm sure he is speaking all about that, and I'd refer you to have a chat with him.

In our drought areas, which I'm much more familiar with, the farmers are needing to buy in hay, they're needing to buy in grain. It's $20,000 a week, one farmer was saying, just to feed his flock - sheep - for a week, every week, $20,000 and $47,000 for a month of grain. I mean, those figures add up really rapidly in a drought. We've been calling on the Labor government to go back to our 2020 model of the Regional Investment. Corporation fund and make it interest-free for two years, three years interest only and then five years principal-and-interest. Farmers can then consolidate the weight of financial debt that some of these farmers are bearing right now – it’s enormous and this helped our farming community and I urge the Labor Government to bring back the Regional Investment Corporation criteria that we had: interest-free for two years.

SEAL

Alright, we might put it to them when we speak to them next and thank you so much. As we know and say it all the time, 90 per cent of our food comes from regional and rural Australia. We certainly need them in more ways than one. But most of all, their health and safety is the main thing. Thank you so much for joining us.

WEBSTER

Thank you, Jaynie.

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