The Auditor-General’s report into the initial $100 million mobile black spots program found that many of the towers were not, in fact, covering black spots. The report, which was tabled in Parliament yesterday, explains that the towers (with 44 in government electorates, 10 in Labor electorates, and three in independent electorates) often don’t actually improve mobile coverage much in those areas.

Almost 70% of the base stations in Labor electorates provided “minimal new coverage” to houses of transport routes, the report found (meaning less than 10 square kilometres of total new coverage), compared to 21% providing minimal new coverage in government electorates.