meanwhile 5G continues to roll out

Inquiry into 5G in Australia: Misinformation by whom? 

Posted on March 9, 2020 by Stop Smart Meters Australia 

Australia’s parliamentary inquiry into 5G, which was announced in September 2019 with submissions due at the beginning of November 2019, continues to trundle on. 

Over 500 of the responses have now been published on the parliamentary website.  An overwhelming majority of these have raised concerns about the deployment of 5G technology. 

The parliamentary committee charged with undertaking this inquiry held public hearings in Queensland and the ACT last year, followed by hearings in Perth, Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney in February.  According to Parliament’s webpage on public hearings, witnesses are called to a hearing so that the committee “can hear from people who have experience or expertise that is relevant to the committee’s inquiry”. 

Given that the lion’s share of submissions highlighted evidence of potential harm as a result of the rollout of 5G, and the authors of the submissions included a number of highly credentialled members of the public, why has the committee chosen to instead hear, in the main, from 5G proponents? 

Analysis of time allocated at hearings shows that telecommunications companies and other supporters of 5G have been granted a staggering 91% of timeslots.  To add insult to injury, witnesses who have refused to jump on the 5G bandwagon were shunted into giving evidence at public hearings located in cities other than their own, even when there was a nearby hearing scheduled.  This is grossly unfair – obviously being able to present in person beats having to participate by teleconference. 

Although the volume of submissions meant that some submitters waited a number of months for their submissions to be published on the parliamentary website, to the committee’s credit, it is also evident that late responses were accepted.  Steve Weller, author of submission 530, and current executive team member of the Oceania Radiofrequency Scientific Advisory Association, used this opportunity to rebut pro-industry spin contained in earlier responses. 

Preposterous claims, such as that made in Vodafone Hutchison’s submission, which states that “Australia has some of the most comprehensive and stringent radio frequency safety and electromagnetic energy (EME) compliance requirements in the developed world” are called out in an appendix to the submission. 

Surely the millions being spent by the government to build public confidence in the safety of telecommunications and 5G, and to address ‘misinformation’ about electromagnetic emissions, would be better spent confronting the reality that wireless technologies are harmful to health? 

The engineers responsible for a paper entitled “Electromagnetic Radiation due to Cellular, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth technologies: How safe are we?”, which has been accepted for publication in a future issue of IEEE Access, a scientific journal published by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, contend that “Both individuals and governments must be aware of the fact that the current population has already been exposed to dangerous levels of radiation and the resulting adverse health effects may surface in people at any time”.  The point is made that “Without thorough research and well-designed safety measures in place, wide-spread deployment of 5G networks could prove to be dangerous” (SSMA emphasis). 

Scientists have been sounding urgent warnings regarding ubiquitous and increasing exposure to electromagnetic fields for decades.  Medical practitioners are coming face to face with the consequences.  Engineers are now recognising that wireless technologies must be avoided as much as possible and urging us to instead favour “new and innovative wired solutions which provide the same level of user-friendliness”. 

In light of this groundswell of awareness, how much longer can the Australian Government continue to aid and abet wireless industry interests?