Senator the Hon Helen Coonan
Minister for Communications,
Information Technology
and the Arts

Deputy Leader of the Government
in the Senate

Strengthening Communities Through Technology

Address to 5th Annual Australian Telecommunications Summit

Sydney
Thursday, 30 August 2007

Thank you for that introduction.

It is a pleasure to be here today to talk about this Government’s commitment to universal fast broadband access and to helping all Australians, wherever they live, to share in the benefits.

It is very important that we never lose sight of exactly why Australia needs world class broadband.

Back in 2000 – which is an eternity in telecom speak - Thomas Friedman said that 'jobs, knowledge use and economic growth will gravitate to those societies that are the most connected …connectivity is now productivity.’1

I want to focus today on that simple equation: connectivity equals productivity.

Australia Connected

On the connectivity side, this Government is ensuring all Australians can enjoy the benefits of broadband access that can help boost productivity right across the economy.

The Australia Connected initiative I announced with the Prime Minister in June will use almost $2 billion of public and private funds to deliver a new state-of-the-art broadband network.

The package includes a new, open-access wholesale network in regional Australia that will extend high speed broadband coverage to 99 per cent of premises right around the country within two years and provide services at metro-comparable prices.

It will include a safety net to ensure Australians living in the most remote or difficult to reach areas—the remaining 1 per cent—are entitled to a subsidised broadband service of up to $2,750 per household under the Australian Broadband Guarantee.

And it will include legislation to protect the $2 billion capital in the Communications Fund thereby ensuring up to $400 million is available every three years for future generations of regional and rural Australians and to ensure the bush has an ongoing, targeted funding source for future upgrades.

And it will include of course, a process already underway to invite and assess proposals for new commercial high speed broadband network infrastructure in all capital cities and major regional centres to be built by the private sector.

Broadband Enabled Applications

Australia Connected is a universal broadband solution for Australia and it addresses the connectivity side of Thomas Friedman’s equation I mentioned earlier.

This universal connectivity is of fundamental importance, but connectivity alone will not deliver the productivity dividend that Friedman spoke of.

As I have said on many occasions before, it is not what broadband ‘is’ that’s important for Australia, but what it can deliver.

Broadband is so much more than just checking e-mails and downloading movies; it is about providing access to information, creating shared research networks, enabling automation of processes and allowing remote monitoring, including medical diagnosis to mention but a few.

Used effectively it can help overcome the tyranny of distance, the isolation that many people in rural and remote areas experience, and change the way that Australians engage with the rest of the world.

To do this effectively we need to foster the creation of broadband-enabled technologies and applications, we need to foster their use, and we need to foster the culture of innovation to continue creating them.

The Howard Government is well aware of how important it is to use broadband effectively.

Take for example the $60m Advanced Networks Program (ANP) we established in 2001 which secured Australia’s active participation in global development of advanced networking technologies, applications, services and content

Back in 2001 before broadband was a household concept, we were already thinking about broadband not only as we now know it, but as we will know it many years from now.

The ANP has worked to create a demand for advanced infrastructure in the future through research into practical applications in fields such as e-health, enterprise systems, training and media.

ANP delivered the first high capacity network — 10 gigabits per second — in the southern hemisphere.

Other ANP projects CeNTIE, GrangeNet and m.Net demonstrated what these networks were capable of delivering and in doing so ensured demand for super high-speed, high capacity broadband infrastructure.

The Australian Government has also allocated $380m to National ICT Australia (NICTA) project, which is working on networking technologies, training and research.

By supplying high quality researcher training and high quality research and products, NICTA is working on both supply and demand of high speed communications networks.

We are already seeing the benefits of these advanced programs in our universities and in our hospitals.

But the benefits don’t stop there.

The leading edge communications technologies and products which have resulted will flow through to even more advanced broadband-enabled services for all Australians, and we need to ensure as a nation our efforts support these developments and we work together in a co-ordinated way.

Clever Networks Program

Through the $22 million Coordinated Communications Infrastructure Fund we first demonstrated that we could use targeted funding to extend the benefits of high speed broadband into rural and regional Australia in a very significant way for health and education.

We have taken this to the next level with the $113 million Clever Networks program where we are increasingly focusing on higher-value strategic outcomes, ones which often have great potential for replication across rural and regional Australia.

In April, I announced that 16 projects had been successful in their application for funding under Round one of Clever Networks.

It is unquestionable that the Clever Networks projects lead to economic growth and increased productivity but to people in rural and regional areas their benefits are often much more tangible and direct than that.

They know that better services mean stronger, more sustainable regional and rural communities.

For example, many communities in regional, Tasmania will benefit from improved medical care thanks to the VirtualCare@TAS project, which I announced in July at the Launceston General Hospital.
It is worth explaining what this project has done to improve health care services throughout northern Tasmania by linking patients in the region with high-quality expertise via wireless and video conference technology and associated specialist equipment.

The VirtualCare@TAS program is made up of four innovation streams:

• The Statewide Medical Advice, Referral and Transfer Network;
• The Chronic Disease Health Coaching Network;
• The Remember Me Aged Care Network; and
• The Telehealth Tasmania Outreach Network.

This new service will focus on rural emergency management, diabetes, oncology, aged care and mental health rehabilitation in regional, rural and remote Tasmania.

The Statewide Medical Advice, Referral and Transfer Network will provide a first response remote medical advice, patient triage and assessment capacity, with access to specialist advice for rural hospital staff in an emergency.

During a medical emergency the network will provide access to remote specialist clinical support for patients in small rural hospitals.

Remote specialist advice will likely be invaluable to volunteer ambulance and emergency officers responding to an emergency in a remote location such as Flinders Island.

The Chronic Disease Health Coaching Network will provide remote clinical supervision for diabetes, cancer, mental health and spinal care and it will help people living in rural and remote Tasmanian communities, and there are many.

This means that a cancer patient will be able to undergo chemotherapy treatment locally administered by their local health professionals delivered via satellite clinics and video conferencing units.

These video conference units will enable peer support and specialist advice in the treatment of patients.

This will reduce the risks of severely ill patients in remote areas travelling long distances to receive their treatment in major centres.

When it comes to treating the sense of isolation in these communities, it’s not just the patients who benefit.

The opportunity for health professionals to increase skills and to engage in professional development without travelling vast distances and leaving these communities is an essential part of recruitment and retention.

The VirtualCare@TAS Program will tackle these critical issues head-on and, in this way, will not only keep more Australians healthy, but keep more Australian communities vibrant and viable.

The health sector is not the only area where the Clever Networks program is simply changing lives.

On Monday, I launched the Emergency Connect project in Western Australia.

This project will provide access to real-time intelligence using Internet-based voice and data services as well as satellite technologies, to radically improve the communications between emergency services organisations virtually across the whole of Western Australia.

I also recently announced the Bush Schools Network which is using broadband infrastructure to connect 88 Catholic, independent and indigenous schools in rural, regional and remote Western Australia.

Announcements from Round two

As you can see, Clever Networks simply is helping to change the lives of people in rural and regional Australia and creating much more sustainable regional communities.

I am very pleased to announce today that six additional projects have been approved under Round Two of the Clever Networks program.

As with Round One by joining Australian Government money with the contributions of other stakeholders we are able to deliver impressive value.

In the six projects I have just approved over $83 million dollars of projects are being delivered for an Australian Government contribution of $29.5 million.

As with Round one, these projects do focus on the use of broadband in health and for other essential services in regional Australia.

One of these projects, the Loddon Mallee Virtual Trauma Care Unit, will allow city-based trauma specialists to provide virtual consultations with a doctor in an emergency room in a regional hospital.

This allows faster responses to emergencies and, either to arrange a medivac which can be critical in saving the lives of patients or to reduce the number of unnecessary patient transfers.

Once again, aside from the obvious reduction in the cost of patient care, we can see how the benefits of this project will flow through the community.

More patients can remain in their communities and near family, during illness.

And regional medical staff are better supported and can improve their skills through the knowledge transfer from the virtual interaction with specialist staff.

This all means that, in the long term, communities are provided with the services they need and want.

Another of the second round projects, eHealth for Remote Australia, will give the Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS ) access to the essential medical history information of more than 750,000 Australians living in remote and isolated areas of New South Wales, South Australia, Queensland and Western Australia.

The project will make medical history, allergy, immunisation, current medications and other health information available to all RFDS clinicians or other authorised health professionals helping to treat people in rural and remote areas.

The Royal Flying Doctors Service will have the right information available for the right person, in the right place at the right time to enable assessment to be made during flight and preparations to be made on the ground to receive the patient.

The new Hunter New England Clinical Outreach Project, which I am also announcing today, together with similar initiatives funded under Round one and covering  the Greater Southern, Greater Western and North Coast areas of NSW will radically transform the provision of healthcare services in regional and rural areas of the New South Wales.

These four projects will cover over 730,000 square kilometres, or approximately 90% of NSW, and will provide a total of $18.4 million in combined Australian Government, State and Area Health Service investment

Each of these projects has been designed to accommodate the different needs and requirements of its region, and they combine to make significant differences to health management practices in NSW.

As a result of these initiatives a total of 138 hospitals and health facilities will have access to advanced clinical applications and upgrades to their broadband infrastructure if required.

The are of course, other projects under Clever Networks are equally beneficial, and I wish I had enough time to mention all of them and the very many ways in which will transform the way Australians living in rural, regional and remote areas.

Broadband Development Network

I am also very pleased to announce today another element of the Clever Networks program: The Australian Broadband Development Network.

Up to 25 people will form the network, and their job will be to enhance understanding, access to and use of broadband in regional communities.

The Network will be established by November this year and will run until 31 March 2010.

Within this network, Broadband Project Managers (BPMs) will work at a state and territory level on strategic broadband development priorities for that region and will be complemented by Broadband Project Officers (BPOs) working on implementing regional priority broadband projects.

Each state and territory will have an opportunity to co-fund a manager.

The managers will identify and document priority areas and opportunities for broadband services, or they will assist communities and sectors to develop the skills to realise the social and economic benefits that broadband can deliver.

The activities of the Broadband Project Officers may include supporting infrastructure roll-out or identifying and documenting what a community sees as priority areas and opportunities for new or improved services.

Basically, the Broadband Development Network is about helping organisations and communities to make the most of the enormous opportunities afforded by broadband applications not just the connectivity side but what it can do to enhance the community.

Links with OPEL and Labors Flaws

Many of the projects I have announced today and in the past months have been made possible through earlier Government initiatives such as the advanced programs I mentioned.

And many of them will be complemented and strengthened by the new Australia Connected package of measures, especially the new open access wholesale network to be built by OPEL.

I think it is proof that we are working in a co-ordinated way to ensure all Australians have access to high-speed broadband and that the benefits that it can deliver equitably to ensure that no Australian will be left behind.

In this context, it is fair to contrast this with what I’ve been calling a one-size fits all broadband proposal from Labor which ignores the priority areas I have outlined today.

I was interested to read comments in The Australian earlier this week about the Labor Party’s, and a quote, “slick and ultimately questionable approach to policy making”.

According to The Australian, there’s a common theme emerging to Labor Party policies, and it goes something like this:

Firstly, craft superficially attractive commitments with a lot of voter appeal.

Secondly, then push these polices so far out into the future that they are rendered almost meaningless in budget terms.

And finally, hope that the no body reads the fine print.

There’s no better example of this than Labor’s broadband announcement that they admit won’t be completed until 2013.

Labor claims its plan will achieve a great many things, but no one could be confident it is a comprehensive plan to meet a demonstrated need.

Where is Labor’s plan for the multi gigabit networks that our research institutions need?

Where’s Labor’s plan for providing hospitals in rural New South Wales with access to advanced clinical applications?

Where’s Labor’s plan for extending high speed broadband to all of those farm businesses and homes that are not conveniently located within 1.5km of a node or an exchange?

The reality is that there’s only one Party that is tackling the hard issues and has a comprehensive broadband vision that is fully costed, well developed and is already delivering services to thousands of Australians.

Through its co-ordinated programs, the Australian Government is ensuring communities all over Australia reap the benefits of Broadband and its many applications, and that is the way we intend to go on.

Thank you

T. Friedman, The Lexus and the Olive Tree, London, HarperCollins, 2000.