Opened the debate
Haines argued that increasing disaster frequency due to climate change required stronger government intervention in communications infrastructure. Haines proposed requiring the Australian Communications and Media Authority to identify high-risk sites and set minimum power backup standards, citing a recommendation for at least 24 hours of backup. The bill also sought to enable temporary disaster roaming to allow users to connect to alternative networks when their primary provider failed. Additionally, it aimed to classify disaster resilience spending as eligible public interest telecommunications spending to facilitate investment in community Wi-Fi and satellite internet.