2 March 2005
Queensland Government Lagging on Broadband Support
During a visit to Longreach today the Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts, Senator Helen Coonan, said schools, TAFE and the Longreach Hospital were being short-changed by the Queensland Government which is dragging its feet on support for broadband.
"In July 2002 the Australian Government pledged $8 million from the Australian Government's $50 million National Communications Fund (NCF) to roll out a broadband network to 70 regional communities in Queensland, including broadband to schools, TAFE and the Hospital in Longreach.
"Overall this project will improve the access to broadband for 70,000 residents, including more than 17,000 students in rural and remote Queensland.
"More than two and a half years later the Queensland Government has only partially rolled out this network and Queensland residents should be very disappointed by the delay in providing this critical infrastructure to improve the delivery of health and education services.
"Every other State provided with Federal funding is either well progressed or has completed the roll-out of infrastructure under this critical program.
"I am keen to work with Queensland, just as I am the other States and Territories, to ensure that we can better coordinate broadband investment across jurisdictions - but I expect them to keep up their end of the bargain and deliver improved services in an acceptable timeframe.
"To illustrate just how important this network is to rural Queensland communities like Longreach:
- It will deliver sophisticated tele-health services such as tele-radiology, ophthalmology, orthopaedic and pre/post admission consultations to 30 hospitals and seven community health centres; and
- It will deliver high speed broadband to 83 primary and secondary schools serving 11,400 students and 1,140 teachers and 13 TAFE colleges encompassing 6,000 students will have access to video streaming and video on demand.
"I strongly encourage the Queensland Government to roll out this infrastructure as soon as it possibly can."
Media Contact: Jane McMillan 0438 690 305
Background on NCF
The National Communications Fund (NCF) was a $50 million program designed to improve the delivery of education and health services in regional and rural areas of Australia by means of improved communications.
It sought and received more than $60 million in matching contributions from State and Territory governments, making the total value of the infrastructure worth more than $110 million.
By funding large-scale telecommunications projects through the NCF, the Government is also enabling new network infrastructure and/or enhancing the capabilities of existing network infrastructure.
The successful NCF projects and their respective Commonwealth funding grant are:
Multi-state:
New South Wales and Northern Territory Interactive e-Learning Initiative-$8 million
New South Wales :
Health and Education Information Access for Rural and Regional NSW-$3.5 million
Northwest and New England Broadband Telecommunications Network-$5.5 million
Queensland :
outbacknet@qld-$8 million
South Australia :
Regional Network Delivering Education Services-$6 million
Tasmania :
Tasmanian Health and Education Communications Consortium- $3 million
Victoria :
Grampians Rural Health Alliance Network-$8 million
Western Australia :
Network WA-$8 million