Media Release

KAP Leader and Federal Member for Kennedy Bob Katter has today put in two more complaints to Telstra about its service outages in Normanton and the North Mission Beach/Bingil Bay/Kurrimine Beach area.
“We just get this over and over again,” Mr Katter said in regards to complaints about Telstra.
“We have this week reported faults for the North Mission Beach/Bingil Bay/Kurrimine Beach area – whose residents have been without mobile phone service since Monday and intermittent landline service.
“Now today, we get further complaints that Normanton has been without working landlines for a week.”
Calvin Gallagher of Gallagher’s Butchering in Normanton reported the fault to Mr Katter and said he was pulling his hair out dealing with the telco giant (see attached photo).
Mr Gallagher is one of thousands making numerous complaints to Telstra – each time waiting on the phone for long periods of time, being told there is no issue, then advised a timeframe for fixing the issue, which Telstra do not meet or communicate back to the customer.
“It is just not good enough. There needs to be a service guarantee like Ergon. If Ergon is out, then they have to pay the punter. People are losing business hand over fist with these outages,” Mr Gallagher said.
The complaints about the service failures in Normanton and Mission Beach area follow complaints last week after the Tully Meals on Wheels waited for its landline to be fixed for two months, and in February, when Julia Creek Hospital was without a landline for a week.
In both instances, Telstra fixed the issues within days of Mr Katter calling, including flying a helicopter to fix Julia Creek Hospital’s landline.
Mr Katter blamed the sell-off of Telstra for the ongoing poor service and long wait times experienced by customers.
“Very sadly, I was proved 100 per cent correct and continue to be proven correct to this day,” Mr Katter said.
“When you sell off your assets, you’re selling Australians out.”

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Note: Attached image: Calvin Gallagher in Normanton pulling his hair out over dealing with Telstra. Photo credit: Anne Pleash.