10 May 2023

Disgraceful Telstra continues to let down the Cape

| Matt Nicholls
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Telstra wants to build a 26.4-metre tower on this site, located on Cooktown’s main street.

ENOUGH is enough.

Telstra’s disdain and blatant disrespect of Cape York residents needs to stop.

Another item was added to the long list of grievances last week when Telstra was caught trying to sneak through a development application for a 26.4-metre phone tower in Cooktown’s main street.

No newspaper notices, just a very late sign installation and some snail mail to next-door neighbours.

In the process, it appears Telstra has breached the state government’s Planning Act 2016.

We shouldn’t be surprised.

This is the same company that has treated Lockhart River residents like second-class citizens for the better part of a decade.

Complaints from Seisia have also been ignored for years.

Hundreds of millions of dollars in bauxite are shipped from Weipa annually, but good luck making a 10-minute phone call without getting disconnected.

This appalling service comes from a company that was fined $50 million because it knowingly targeted and ripped off Indigenous people in remote communities.

Telstra is also the business that begs for federal funding to erect towers in remote areas because they won’t fork out themselves.

For the record, the Archer River Roadhouse still doesn’t have its taxpayer-funded Telstra tower.

Enough is enough. Cape York deserves better from Telstra.

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