Shadow Minister for Regional Development, Local Government and Territories - Shadow Minister for Regional Communications- Transcript - Interview 6PR Perth Radio - 28 October 2025

DR ANNE WEBSTER MP

SHADOW MINISTER FOR REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT, LOCAL GOVERNMENT AND TERRITORIES

SHADOW MINISTER FOR REGIONAL COMMUNICATIONS

FEDERAL MEMBER FOR MALLEE

TRANSCRIPT

TOPICS: 1-year anniversary of the 3G shutdown, regional connectivity, speed limit reduction consultation, cost of regional airfares

COLLETT

It really irks me because I do so much travelling in the regions and I know so many people that live in the regions and just so annoyed with this as well. Joining us to chat about how we mark the anniversary of one year since the 3G network was shut off and the effect it has had on so many Australians who are affected by it today and have been affected by it now for 12 months is Anne Webster, the Shadow Minister for Regional Development, Local Government. Territories. G'day Anne. How are you?

WEBSTER

Good thanks.

COLLETT 

This is not a really great anniversary for those living in the regions. This effect, the flow on effect of shutting down the 3G network hasn't been good for those outside the cities?

WEBSTER 

100 per cent it has not been good. And the problem that we have is we still don't have clear data on how many areas are still being impacted. My electorate is over a third of the state of Victoria, so I'm talking to you from the other side. And I can tell you right now, as I travel around the electorate and as I speak to locals, they me that they have still not got good connectivity, if they've got any connectivity at all. And I was in Western Australia last week. I spoke with a lot of your people over there and same thing. So it's across Australia. This 3G shutdown has meant that people have lost the ability to call their loved ones, to say that their car has broken down, you name it. For farmers to be able to let their loved ones know they've had an accident on the property, to be able to connect to the markets. It is a big problem and one of my other portfolios is regional communication so I am very aware of this. The government says they will get a data release on the 3G shutdown and the lost signal by 2027. Hold on to your hats, people.

COLLETT

You're kidding. Just sit tight. 2027 is coming up and they will tell us where all the 3G shutdown issues are?

WEBSTER 

Well, I can tell you it's a lot of people out in the regions. They promised - Telstra, Optus, Vodafone - they all promised that we would not suffer when 3G shut down and would all be better because we'd have more 4G, 5G. Well, that is not what regional Australians are experiencing.

COLLETT

Absolutely not. You speak to anybody who's a truckie, anyone who's doing long haul, they'll tell you very, very quickly that the bar, you might have four bars in the middle of a town. You drive 10 minutes, just 10 minutes outside that town. You might be be driving for eight hours to your next stop in the northwest and you have no signal, none, zip, not even one bar.

WEBSTER

Yeah, it's appalling. I mean, I get it all the time and that's why I'm going to put a Starlink on the roof of my car, go into aeroplane mode make the calls that I need to make. It's just appalling that we have been left in this situation. And look, the Labor government just does not seem to really hear the concerns that we have.

COLLETT

They're certainly not hearing because everywhere I go in the bush, and I do travel a lot, up to the northwest, down to the southwest, a great southern, out to the Goldfields, it's the first thing on a lot of people's minds. They talk about it consistently. They've been let down by this government. They've been let down by the telcos that said that everything will be fine. It's not fine. And it's quite disturbing if you're out in the middle of the bush and maybe you saw a fire start or you saw an accident, you can't make contact with anybody to tell them about it.

WEBSTER

No, that's exactly right. And we've just had the Optus 000 disaster. And you have to call it a disaster when four people have lost their lives. 600 people couldn't make calls. Well, you add the 3G shutdown and the impact on people in the regions, I can almost guarantee you, I don't have the hard data, unfortunately, because we won't have it till 2027. But I can guarantee you there are thousands, if not tens of thousands of people who are in exactly the same position. cannot ring Triple Zero because they have no connectivity.

COLLETT

How can we have any other form of communication where you have a three-year trial before you even analyse the impact on regions?

WEBSTER

Well, that's effectively what it is, isn't it? I mean, it's kind of they're working out the maths as they they go. It's just terrible. We warned - in the Coalition, we warned - the government they needed to be absolutely sure before they agreed to the telcos to shut down 3G that people's connectivity was not going to be worse. They did not ensure that, and the outcome is what we experiencing now.

COLLETT

Yeah, I just cannot believe that it's a three-year trial. I really can't. What's going to happen in the next two years has already happened this year, this past 12 months. We said it's the anniversary today, so they've got plenty of data. They've got 365 days of data. They could speak to any transport company that they wanted to and every truck driver would be able to, anyone that drives long haul would be able to help them. You could speak to their own train drivers who were employed by the federal government. There's plenty of avenues to find out very, very very quickly if this service, the loss of 3G is having an impact on regional Australia. And I can assure you, every single town I go to, it's impacting.

WEBSTER

Absolutely, 100%. And if I might, Russell, the other thing that we have been fighting for here is the so-called consultation on reducing the speed limits out in the region. Out in the regions, the default speed limit to potentially 70 kilometres an hour. And I have been talking about this for the last week or more and saying it's just not good enough. So once again, regional Australians are being hit with ridiculous, ridiculous measures. And it's only tonight, so this is fresh off the press, that we have found out that it is because Bowen is trying hit his emissions targets that he wants those of us who live in the regions to slow down so that our emissions will be less. Now, isn't that a great goal? Isn't that fabulous? So the goal to reduce fatalities, everybody would be on board with that. But the fact is roads need to be repaired and I can tell you you right now, over in the east, they are not being repaired. The government is not funding road repairs the way they need to. And worse still, there is an ideological bent to this, which is all about emissions reductions.

COLLETT

Unbelievable. A drive, say, from Perth to Kalgoorlie which is approximately six hours at 110k's for the great majority of it, if you change that to an 80km zone, you'd add an hour and a half to that driving. So for a single person driving, that becomes a seven and a half hour drive. And what happened to fatigue kills, the message about fatigue killing people?

WEBSTER

Absolutely. I mean, it's just absolute nonsense. And, you know, to be fair, the government is talking about roads that don't have sign speed limits. So these are all the roads we use if we live in the regions, the roads we take to get off the highway, it's those roads that could reduce to 70 kilometres an hour

COLLETT

Another big report out we heard about in our news on the hour is ticket prices for air travel to the regions - I can assure you of this, Shadow Minister, that this is also a number one or a massive problem in the regions. People getting short from it - people wanting to be a tourism side of it to the regions, and people from the regions wanting to travel to Perth - a lot of the time you travel to the city centres, as you know living regional areas, when you have to travel for a funeral, it might be for for a meeting, it could be for a checkup, any sort of reason, usually those short term travels you cannot plan well ahead - those are the sort of ones that hit you the worst. I had to fly to Kalgoorlie and back it cost me just short of $1,000 and we were saying on the weekend with our aviation bloke I can fly to Europe and back, London and back, for $1,477

WEBSTER

Its crazy these urban bureaucrats who make these decisions I've met with Qantas recently and talked about flight prices out in the regions and the number that are of course available to us in the regions. Of course its very restrictive, we know Rex has been on life support the government has put in $150m to save their bacon, now weve got an American company Air-T in negotiations. That is all good and well but we need prices out in the regions that are fair - and they are not fair and they haven't been fair for a long time and you are totally right it is often when you need to go see a doctor or need to have an operation there are reasons why we need those fast trips and absolutely consultation needs to take place and we need to find out how there can be a fairer deal for those that live in the regions.

COLLETT 

Anne as Shadow Minister for Regional Development, we are a talkback station, we have got a talkback caller wanting to say hello - Joe from Meckering joins us about the regions, G'day Joe

CALLER JOE 

G'day folks. 135 kilometres from GPO Perth, Meckering, I get people ... I live right on the highway, the Telstra map when you look it up says you may receive 4G with aerial on your roof. I get people knocking on my front door saying could we use your landline I get nothing on the highway - the transcontinental highway! - we can't get any service

COLLETT

Incredible, Joe. What do you think of that Shadow Minister?

WEBSTER

I hear it all the time - it frustrates the living daylights out of me. I don't think its good enough - and I've said to Telstra many times - I don't believe it is good enough saying: Well, you as a household have to put a booster on your roof because we will only commit to some signal outside your home not inside your home. There are just all these anomalies that exist and it's, let's face it, is us in the regions, we are the ones who wear this stuff and we have to do better. David Littleproud is the National's leader. He's my leader. And he has tasked me with the job to create a new universal service obligation. So at the moment, the universal service obligation is for pay phones, obviously outdated, and we need to work towards something that is actually going to work out in the regions. Yes, we know low earth orbiting satellites are in play, but it's only for text messaging. You've got to have the right phone. There are all these provisos. So we're in this period of time where there is a lot of technological. We all understand that. We appreciate that. But we need solutions out in the regions. And, you know, it just can't wait for years for people to work it out.

COLLETT

Thanks for your call there, Joe in Meckering. Unbelievable. 135km - just outside of the other side of Northam. That's not the extremes. That's not living in the bush. This is on Highway 1. This is the main transport route around the nation. And he's got people coming and asking if they can use his landline. Just extraordinary, if I might, one other thing with this, the government ordering the Productivity Commission to probe these higher prices on the regions. Why would we need an 18-month probe and then probably another six months after that to get a calculus on what the probe found? We're talking two years. Why can't we just act on it? We know the prices are too high. If I'm paying $1,000 to go to Kalgoorlie and back, and I can get to London and back for $1,400, it's pretty obvious that something is going drastically wrong.

WEBSTER

Well, I think that there has to be ... I agree with you, it just shouldn't take that long. The numbers are all there. The companies exist. They keep all the data. This is not new. I'm told it's the number of passengers on flights that means that it costs more for an aeroplane to get from A to B out in the regions. Okay, look, we accept that. But the reality is that for all those quick flights from capital cities, and, you know, I think obviously I'm over on the east, but it's the Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne routes, they make a squillion on those flights and those air tickets are seriously cheap. How about they just even the whole thing out and make it a bit fairer for those who live in the regions? Why is it that we should be suffering out in the regions just because we choose to live here and, you in most cases, grow food and fibre, contribute, invest out in the regions? It's a good thing. We should be supported in that and I always say that common sense basically basically comes from the regions. I really do believe that. And usually when you're looking for a think tank from the cities, common sense goes out the window.

COLLETT

Lovely to have you on board today, Anne Webster. All the best to you and the Shadow Ministry. And thank you for joining us here on Perth Live.

WEBSTER 

Thank you very much for having me.

COLLETT 

There you go, Anne Webster. What do you think? 133882. You can text us through 048799882. It does rile me up because I just know how hard people work in the regions. People love regional WA We know the impact we have nationally on the economy. We are the workforce. We are the centre of our economy here in WA People do a lot of driving. It's unsafe if you cannot use your phone. It is unsafe if you see something and you can't report it. It's just not good enough. And to wait three years while the bureaucracy, the buffets at the bureaucracy work out what they think is happening in the regions and then they'll take probably another 18 months to report on it. It's just not good enough.

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