A lack of investment in basic infrastructure for people living in remote Australia is a shame on the nation and is jeopardising the country’s long-term economic potential.

Senator O’Sullivan said the deficiencies in telecommunications investment in rural and remote regions was voiced during his eight-day tour of far-western Queensland.

He said every single community and local government leader expressed ongoing frustration that their regions were falling behind the rest of the nation in access to affordable and reliable technology services.

Senator O’Sullivan, who sits with the National Party in federal Parliament, said there was also a clear message from locals that they felt their economic contribution was being overlooked by Canberra.

Senator O’Sullivan said a dramatic priority shift was needed by politicians when deciding how telecommunications infrastructure funding was prioritised and committed.

“Policy decisions too often focus on the number of people living in a region and not the economic output of the area,” Senator O’Sullivan said.

“Rural and remote regions punch well above their economic weight and underpin the wealth of the rest of our nation, yet are too often overlooked or ignored when delivering even basic infrastructure. Some infrastructure is almost third world. 

“This is both unacceptable and unsustainable. We need these regions to prosper because of their significant economic contribution to the national coffers.

“Rural and remote regions are wealth generating regions and they need much higher consideration when we are determining priority infrastructure.”

Senator O’Sullivan said declining international commodity prices for iron ore and coal was making Australia increasingly reliant on a strong and vibrant agriculture export sector.

However, he said our international competitiveness was under threat wherever rural and remote business operators did not have access to reliable technology.

“There are significant export opportunities for our agriculture sector in the coming years and decades,” he said.

“We must ensure our farmers are able to compete on a level playing field in the global marketplace and in the 21st century that means access to fast and affordable wireless broadband, mobile phone reception and reliable landline services.”

Senator O’Sullivan said there was no more urgent example than the exclusion of the Barcoo and Diamantina shires from receiving optic fibre services under the National Broadband Network (NBN).

The areas are currently in the 3 per cent of the population who will receive a satellite-only service.