There are calls for telecommunications companies to be held responsible for maintaining reception towers in regional Australia and the Hunter.
The Nationals say one tower towns are at risk of losing connection to emergency services if infrastructure isn’t properly maintained.
It follows fallout from Optus outages, most recently in the Illawarra.
Nationals leader David Littleproud says the Federal Government should reform existing laws to make telcos look after their equipment.
“At the moment, the universal service obligation, where $270 million is put into every year, only goes to landlines and payphones,” he said.
“Why wouldn’t we re-cut the money into something that could save lives and make Australia more productive in making sure these telcos maintain these towers?
“The reality is, unless we force these telcos into maintaining towers, we potentially could see another Optus disaster like we saw on the weekend,” he said.
