Member for Central Wheatbelt Hon Mia Davies MLA has accused the Labor Government of continuing to pass the buck on failures to essential services in the Wheatbelt in the wake of the massive January storms that swept through the region.
In Parliament this week Ms Davies asked the Premier if the Minister for Emergency Services had briefed him on the unacceptable risk to lives and communities as a result of the telecommunications failures and lack of access to triple zero that occurred during the prolonged outage.
She also pressed the Premier on when more standalone power systems would be deployed to the Wheatbelt to prevent ongoing outages across the region.
“The Premier’s response was wholly unsatisfactory, saying there would be yet another review and more conversation with telecommunications companies,” Ms Davies said.
“He also made sweeping statements about the Government’s program of delivering standalone systems across the State, ignoring the question of when more would be delivered to the Wheatbelt.
“There are communities that have been advocating for alternative power solutions in the electorate who have met brick wall after brick wall and it’s simply not good enough.”
The Premier refused to acknowledge if action to remedy the power and telecommunications issue had ground to a halt under the State and Federal Labor Governments.
“When asked to confirm that improving the resilience of regional telecommunications networks should be a priority but that nothing had changed under this state or federal Labor Government despite recommendations from multiple bushfire reviews, including the recent Corrigin-Wickepin bushfires, he avoided the question,” Ms Davies said.
“His undertaking was merely to continue working with the Commonwealth to ensure that we have a much more resilient telecommunications system in the context of bushfire or power outage events.”
Ms Davies said she would be holding the Premier to his word and asking for regular updates on progress to deploy improved power solutions for the region, along with greater resilience across the telecommunications network.
“People living in regional WA deserve a Government that cares about basic and essential infrastructure and services,” she said.
“With a massive budget surplus it’s not too much to expect reliable power, water and mobile communications.”
For media enquiries please contact Mia Davies on 9041 1702 (Merredin office), 9622 2871 (Northam office) or email mia.davies@mp.wa.gov.au.
