Latest news with #JaneBennett
ABC News
23-07-2025
- ABC News
Busselton residents fear safety impacts of mobile signal shortfall
Residents in the West Australian tourism hub of Busselton say frequent dropouts in phone and internet service are an unacceptable impost on public safety and trade. The situation left a family in a life-threatening situation and unable to call triple-0 as a fire swept through their property earlier this year. Jane Bennett lives on a rural property within the City of Busselton, about 230 kilometres south of Perth and a 20-minute drive to Busselton's CBD. In January, her husband Owen Bennett was faced with the daunting task of battling a fire on his own, unable to call for help because of an unplanned outage of a nearby phone tower. "He's in direct line of sight to the tower, which is about a kilometre away, and he's calling triple-0 and it doesn't connect," Ms Bennett said. "He was in panic." Ms Bennett said her husband managed to find a signal on a neighbour's property and it was a "miracle" their house was saved when firefighters arrived an hour later. She said when they asked Telstra about the unplanned outage they were told it was caused by a severed fibre-optic cable at Bridgetown, 80 kilometres away. Telstra told the Bennetts the cable was "cut due to nearby third-party excavation works". As Australia's national operator of the triple-0 service, Telstra is required to have fail-safe systems and processes for emergencies. A Telstra spokesperson said residents were informed of outages on its website. "We are very saddened to hear of any damage or loss due to natural disasters," the spokesperson said. "In times of mobile outages, it's important that households have access to a second form of connectivity as a back-up — this could be fixed NBN, satellite or landline services." Businesses in the heart of Busselton said they wanted better telecommunications, saying it was important to cope with demand during peak holiday periods and the dropouts were a public safety issue. Busselton Chamber of Commerce chief executive Victoria Yuen said connectivity was a big issue hitting business bottom lines, particularly in the busy summer months when pressure on telecommunications was at its peak. "The main issues are dropouts of phones," she said. "Dropouts when people are trying to work from home. Payment systems not working. Ms Yuen said she had been pushing for improved telecommunications infrastructure in Busselton for years but the issue was largely overlooked. She said it was embarrassing that business owners had to walk to the end of their driveway to get a decent phone signal. "We can't just keep saying, 'Oh it's OK. This is what happens,'" Ms Yuen said. "No, that's not a decent enough excuse anymore." The City of Busselton is home to more than 40,000 people, according to the 2021 census, and is considered one of the fastest growing regional cities in WA. Busselton Mayor Phill Cronin said phone and internet coverage had diminished in the area over the past five years, which he believed was due to inadequate telecommunications infrastructure. "I've heard sometimes they [telecommunications companies] are unable to put towers up because they can't get the power to the towers," he said. "It's a whole-of-infrastructure issue that really does need to be addressed." Cr Cronin said the council had received a number of reports from concerned residents about the issue. "We've seen unfortunately during some recent fires where one of the towers was down, the DFES emergency warnings weren't being sent out and people weren't even able to make triple-0 calls," he said. "That is a major concern for our community." The mayor said he had reached out to federal Communications Minister Michelle Rowland about the issue. "Communications is predominantly the responsibility of the federal [government], but the infrastructure is a state responsibility," he said. "If the area is expected to grow, and it will continue to grow, we need the infrastructure here in place before that can occur." Last month, South West councils voted to ask the WA Local Government Association (WALGA) to lobby the state and federal governments for improved telecommunication infrastructure. A state government spokesperson told the ABC they had continued to co-invest in projects which increased capacity and strengthened the resilience of telecommunications in regional businesses and communities. Ms Rowland was contacted for comment.
Scoop
01-05-2025
- Business
- Scoop
Stars Welcome New And Returning Sponsors For 2025
Press Release – Stars Netball The Stars are excited to announce their sponsors for the 2025 ANZ Premiership season, with a mix of new and longstanding partners on board. HydraPlay join the Stars as their new hydration partner and Director Justin Hickey is pumped to be able to fuel the team's performance. 'At HydraPlay, we know that champions are made one sip at a time. We're proud to support the Stars as they blaze through the ANZ Premiership season, bringing elite athleticism and unstoppable energy to the court. Just like our natural hydration solutions, this partnership is designed to keep the team at the top of their game—fast, focused, and always ready to shine.' New Balance are adding spark to the Stars as their new apparel sponsor, with NZME the new media partner and they have a fresh new partnership with Fruit World. A number of valued local businesses have pledged their continued support as major partners for 2025, with Counties Energy, Southern Autos, Go Media, Vertical Logistics, DoubleTree by Hilton – Karaka and Health New Zealand all returning for another season. Stars General Manager Jane Bennett has reinforced how important our partners are. 'Our partners are an integral part of the Stars whānau and we have new sponsors joining a strong foundation that have been with us for many seasons.' Bennett said. ' There are strong value synergies with our partners and our players genuinely love the opportunity to interact with them and our community. We offer a fun and inclusive environment, access to amazing role models, plus strong year on year game attendance and viewership growth.' Major partners: Paerata Rise, Counties Energy, Vertical Logistics, Health New Zealand | Te Whatu Ora, Go Media, DoubleTree by Hilton Karaka, Auckland, The Hits
Scoop
30-04-2025
- Business
- Scoop
Stars Welcome New And Returning Sponsors For 2025
The Stars are excited to announce their sponsors for the 2025 ANZ Premiership season, with a mix of new and longstanding partners on board. HydraPlay join the Stars as their new hydration partner and Director Justin Hickey is pumped to be able to fuel the team's performance. "At HydraPlay, we know that champions are made one sip at a time. We're proud to support the Stars as they blaze through the ANZ Premiership season, bringing elite athleticism and unstoppable energy to the court. Just like our natural hydration solutions, this partnership is designed to keep the team at the top of their game—fast, focused, and always ready to shine." New Balance are adding spark to the Stars as their new apparel sponsor, with NZME the new media partner and they have a fresh new partnership with Fruit World. A number of valued local businesses have pledged their continued support as major partners for 2025, with Counties Energy, Southern Autos, Go Media, Vertical Logistics, DoubleTree by Hilton – Karaka and Health New Zealand all returning for another season. Stars General Manager Jane Bennett has reinforced how important our partners are. 'Our partners are an integral part of the Stars whānau and we have new sponsors joining a strong foundation that have been with us for many seasons.' Bennett said. ' There are strong value synergies with our partners and our players genuinely love the opportunity to interact with them and our community. We offer a fun and inclusive environment, access to amazing role models, plus strong year on year game attendance and viewership growth.'
Yahoo
08-04-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Wheelchair donation
Apr. 7—MIDLAND — Senior Life Midland (SLM) for 40 plus years has served our most vulnerable, our homebound seniors through an array of services from delivering a hot, nutritious meal, which includes a visit from a caring volunteer, providing handyman services to ensure clients are safe, providing needed additional items such personal hygiene items, additional food, even wheelchairs when available. On April 8, a longtime supporter, American Legion Auxiliary Unit 19, Midland will donate and deliver 28 wheelchairs to Senior Life Midland at 1:30 p.m. During January, SLM's Community Volunteer Program (CVP) hosted an MLK Day project to collect donations to purchase much needed wheelchairs as the need has grown. A wheelchair enables physically limited individuals to increase their independence, whether they are in their homes or when they are being taken to an appointment, a news release said. "Senior Life Midland is one of our favorite and most trusted partners as they work hard to meet needs of seniors in our community and through their agency serve many of our veterans. We work together all throughout the year on important projects, when we saw their urgent call to action for a request for wheelchairs, we wanted to step up to help. We are so proud of our unit and our hard work to be able to do important things like this," Jane Bennett, President of the local American Legion Unit 19, said in the release. Executive Director of Senior Midland, Kathleen Kirwan Haynie, is \thankful for community partners like The American Legion Auxiliary. "We assess the ongoing, evolving local needs of our local seniors, and through grassroots efforts, we are able to help our elderly neighbors no matter what is going on in our economy," she said.
