Telecommunications: A Win for Berowra 

Thank you for all your support for the Telstra campaign I have been running. 
 
I want to let you know about a very significant step forward, that was taken on the 5 May 2021. 
 
Paul Fletcher, the Minister for Communications and the Arts, announced in Kenthurst that the Morrison Government is committing $16.4 million to a brand new pilot program designed to help communities like ours, around the country. 
 
The Government’s Peri-Urban Mobile Protection Program (PUMP) is dedicating funds towards the building of mobile towers in outer-metropolitan disaster-prone areas, like the Berowra electorate. This fund is designed to put money on the table to encourage telecommunications companies to step up and provide solutions for places that do not have adequate service. 
 
Minister Paul Fletcher came to Kenthurst to deliver the announcement and acknowledged that the campaigning from our community over the past 12 months was the impetus for this new program. 
 
I am very proud of the efforts of our community, and of the Government for taking this forward step. It is now up to the telecommunications companies to play their part. 
 
As Paul Fletcher, the Minister for Communications and the Arts, acknowledged, this package would not have been delivered without the ongoing efforts of all those who have joined me in my efforts to hold Telstra and other telecommunications companies to account. The community campaigning was crucial to this new program being implemented. 
 
In the coming weeks I will be sharing more information about how you can help encourage Telstra and the other telecommunications companies to participate in this program, so we can make the most of the opportunity it provides.  
 
It won’t fix every problem in our electorate, and I will not be giving up this fight until the telecommunication companies, and particularly Telstra, step up to take their part, 
but it is a huge step forward.