Member for Mallee Dr Anne Webster MP said she was very disappointed in today’s report from a fast-track Senate inquiry into the shutdown of digital television in Mildura. The inquiry into Labor’s Bill to offer VAST satellite services to Mildura residents, at costs estimated to up to $1,000 per household, handed down its report today, calling on the Albanese Government to move as swiftly as possible to declare Sunraysia as ‘service deficient’.

Member for Mallee Dr Anne Webster MP said she was dismayed that the report was conducted in such haste and that the Labor-dominated Committee did not listen properly to the Sunraysia community.

“Today’s report sadly sums up Mildura under Labor – worse than service-deficient. It will take up to 4 months, even if or once this Bill passes, for Mildura to be declared service-deficient. Wherever we look north-west Victoria is gutted for services and coping with grossly inadequate infrastructure despite being by far the largest regional centre in north-western Victoria,” Dr Webster said.

“As I have mentioned before, Labor has the audacity to do virtually nothing for the area when their former Communications Minister hailed Mildura decades ago as being the first to switch digital television on. Now, reportedly, we are the first in Australia to switch it off.”

Coalition senators said in their additional comments to the report that they:

“… are alarmed that in the middle of the Labor Government’s cost-of-living crisis, their solution for Mildura and Sunraysia residents—who are reported to be the first in the nation to lose a digital television service3—is that they have to pay close to $1,000 to keep watching the Ten network’s programs. These regional Victorians are left wondering about the equity of their status as regional Australians, particularly given the Labor Government provided $32.9 million in funding assurance so regional Western Australian viewers, could keep viewing Ten content there.

“It should be remembered that the Labor Government was warned of the looming shutdown of Mildura Digital Television in at least early May 2024/5 and were slow to respond. The Hon Michelle Rowland MP, Minister for Communications introduced this Bill into Parliament just four days before the Mildura Digital Television signal was turned off.”

Dr Webster also said she was disappointed that the Senate inquiry failed to give Mildura people a voice by refusing to hold a hearing in the affected city.

“The Committee also gave such a short one-week turnaround that there were very few submissions.  Yet again we see Labor not listening to regional communities,” Dr Webster said.