Federal Member for Macquarie Susan Templeman has demanded the Morrison Government use the latest round of a Commonwealth program to reinstate a mobile phone tower planned for Mount Tomah and to target mobile black spots across the Hawkesbury and Blue Mountains.

A total of $34.5 million in funding has been announced in the latest round of the Mobile Blackspot Program to “extend and improve” mobile phone coverage to “natural disaster-prone areas”.

“I’ve called for funding to fix our black spots for years, and the Morrison Government announced a mobile tower for Mount Tomah in 2015. But then they secretly agreed with the NSW Government to relocate it to Gollan - near Dubbo - four years later,” Ms Templeman said.

“Residents of the Blue Mountains and Hawkesbury know how bad communications are in our area, so the fact Liberal governments at both the state and federal levels have taken away a mobile tower in our area for what appears to be political purposes is astonishing.

“Mount Tomah lost a number of homes in last summer’s bushfire crisis, and other buildings were damaged. Communities like this desperately need communications capability.

“The Mobile Black Spot program is meant to ‘extend and improve mobile phone coverage and competition in regional and remote areas of Australia’.

“The guidelines for the latest round of this grant were released on November 18 and potential applicants – either Mobile Network Operators (MNO) or Mobile Network Infrastructure Providers (MNIP) – have to register their interest by the middle of next month.

“If the telco providers can’t reach an agreement with infrastructure providers, then the Commonwealth and NSW Governments need to step in and resolve this.

“There are plenty of areas in the Blue Mountains and Hawkesbury that have