Address to CeBIT Broadband Infrastructure Forum
Tuesday, 3 March 2009
Good afternoon everyone.
As I said in the forum this morning, it is an absolute pleasure to be with you here in Hannover.
It is an honour to be among so many people dedicating their time and knowledge to enabling innovation in the digital space.
CeBIT is a leading platform for the consideration of our digital future.
In Australia, we have placed a high priority on developing our digital economy and this event is a unique opportunity to link with like-minded colleagues from around the globe.
The digital economy promises many opportunities for growth and development.
It opens up new opportunities for businesses to increase efficiency and productivity.
It provides new opportunities for governments to engage with society and deliver public services.
It creates new opportunities for citizens to organise, communicate and fully participate in society.
Broadband infrastructure is a vital enabler for this emerging environment.
It is the infrastructure foundation for digital innovation, and the platform for new and emerging services.
Governments around the world are recognising the importance of broadband.
They recognise its fundamental link to the digital economy.
They recognise its role in ensuring future economic and social prosperity.
As the OECD has noted, broadband networks are an increasingly integral part of our economies.
Carriers and governments are working to roll out high-speed broadband networks in many countries.
In the United States, Canada, Singapore, Japan, Korea, New Zealand, Germany and France, new fibre-to-the-node or fibre-to-the-premises networks are being planned or deployed.
The countries that roll out these networks will be better placed to seize the economic and social opportunities that high-speed broadband enables.
Indeed, as the Global Financial Crisis has unfolded over the past year, an increasing weight of opinion has formed for broadband as an economic stimulus.
Earlier this year, Cisco Systems chief executive John Chambers made the observation that broadband would be the driving engine of the 21st century economy.
He said:
"It will create jobs in the growth sectors of our economy jobs that are driving the collaboration and interaction economy."
IBM chairman and chief executive Samuel Palmisano said in a recent Financial Times commentary that stimulus should address future needs and national competitiveness.
He said:
"Many Governments and business leaders are not simply undertaking activity for activity's sake but are seizing the opportunity to transform and innovate in ways that create exportable skills, resources and technology."
Palmisano added:
"Such investments not only yield a greater long-term return, they are also more cost-effective."
In the United States, the Obama Administration has announced a $7.2 billion broadband package as part of its stimulus response to the global recession.
The package will see the development of a national broadband plan and the allocation of grants and loans to expand broadband access and adoption.
One industry consulting firm, inCode Telecom, suggests the package will create 10,000 jobs over the next four to five years.
Moreover, these investments will create new business opportunities to improve the commercial viability of small communities and assist the unemployed to access training opportunities online.
The Australian Government fully recognises the economic and social potential of broadband.
We have placed broadband at the forefront of a nation-building infrastructure agenda.
The Government has committed to invest up to $4.7 billion in a National Broadband Network to be constructed in partnership with the private sector.
The National Broadband Network will be one of the largest infrastructure investments undertaken by any Australian Government.
It will reach 98% of Australian homes and businesses, providing high-speed internet access and supporting emerging applications in health and education.
In addition, we are looking at options to enhance high-speed services to the most remote 2% of the country to ensure broadband benefits are available to all Australians no matter where they live or work.
Broadband will be a vital building block for Australia's future economic productivity and prosperity.
Recent economic turmoil highlights the need for swift and decisive action when it comes to economic stimulus.
However, the Australian Government led by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has always understood the importance of planning and building for the future.
Long-term infrastructure investments are essential to drive productivity and secure prosperity for the years to come.
This is certainly the case with communications infrastructure and is exactly why the Government is engaging in the National Broadband Network project.
As one Australian industry executive said recently:
"This is probably the pre-eminent nation-building project. It not only employs a large number of Australians, but it provides us with 21st century capability in terms of technology, which will flow through into productivity and future benefits."
Investment in broadband infrastructure will provide a boost to short-term employment opportunities while creating a foundation for our future economy.
It will create a platform for future innovation.
It will drive new business efficiencies.
It will support new smart infrastructure.
It will open new trade opportunities.
It will contribute to productivity growth across the economy.
A 2008 survey of Australian business leaders confirmed this.
Conducted by the Australian Industry Group, it exposed overwhelming support from business for the National Broadband Network.
More than 85 per cent of CEOs said internet access was highly important to their business.
More than 93 per cent said the internet was driving productivity.
70 per cent said broadband was a strategic advantage.
However, the results also indicate a strong requirement for improved access to reliable and affordable high-speed services.
They highlighted an urgent need for an effective, national broadband network, to encourage the take-up of new applications.
Without it, the survey suggests Australian industry, and the overall economy, will suffer.
We will forgo efficiency and productivity gains, and other commercial benefits.
Australian industry recognises broadband as a vital driver for innovation and productivity, two key factors that will underpin our future national economy prosperity.
The Australian Government shares the views of Australian industry.
The economic benefits of broadband are clear.
Businesses know from present experience what opportunities lie ahead.
And, their desire to realise those opportunities is resolute.
Equally, broadband is already having a transformative effect on our society.
And, despite current challenges, we are now starting to see the types of innovations that will be commonplace in future years.
This is occurring around the globe and certainly in Australia.
Australia is a land of vast distances and dispersed population.
Our landmass is over 7.5 million square kilometres an area more than 4.5 times larger than Germany.
Australia has a relatively small population given its size of 21 million people.
This translates into a population density of less than 3 people per square kilometre.
Contrast this with Germany's population density of 230 people per square kilometre.
What this means is that Australia faces particular challenges in the roll-out of communications networks.
It must manage a large number of widely-dispersed small communities separated by large distances from major economic hubs.
Ensuring universal broadband access in Australia represents a significant undertaking and is why the Government has committed so strongly to invest in the National Broadband Network.
Despite these challenges we can already see the potential for major benefits in regional, rural and remote communities across the country.
The York Peninsula is a remote region 250 kilometres west of Adelaide that's 1600 kilometres from Sydney and 2700 kilometres from Perth.
The region includes an extensive system of salt lakes and seasonal swamps, as well as pastoral lands.
It has a population of just over 11,000 people with 35% employed primarily in agriculture.
Population is decreasing and the area has a higher than average proportion of people aged over 50.
In 2005, broadband arrived on the Yorke Peninsula.
A study produced two years afterwards, in 2007, estimated that broadband is currently delivering $9.4 million in benefits annually.
Local businesses are now collaborating and trading with partners in distant locations, while doctors are using broadband to transfer medical files and access records.
Further investment through the National Broadband Network will ensure that similar stimulus is created in other regions of the country.
Another regional broadband benefit, and the need to support robust public service applications, became evident with the recent devastating bushfires in my home state of Victoria.
Just three weeks ago these fires destroyed thousands of homes and tragically took a toll on life never before seen in Australia.
Since first breaking out in early February, they continue to burn on several fronts, periodically threatening buildings and communities.
Having access to up-to-date information is obviously essential for all of those involved.
One source of information as this crisis broke out was the web site of the Country Fire Authority, the main fire response force in Victoria.
The CFA web site publishes rolling updates about fires burning across the state.
Such was the extent of the recent disaster that traffic to the CFA web site reached unprecedented levels.
I understand that as events unfolded the rate of hits exploded to 200 per second up from a normal rate of 2 per second.
People were hitting the site to monitor local conditions and to check on the safety of family and friends across the state.
The situation led to an important partnership when Google approached the CFA with an offer to establish an interactive map showing the location and status of fires.
The initiative ensured the continued reliable availability of up-to-date information and has since resulted in a collaborative online map detailing bushfire memorials and relief fundraising events.
This tragic situation underscores the potential of the internet to assist with fast-moving disaster management.
It underscores the emerging expectation that information is always available on-demand.
It underscores how broadband will increasingly support essential public services, such as emergency response.
And, it underscores the need to improve broadband access and availability.
Of course, broadband offers opportunities across all sectors of the economy.
Indeed, we are witnessing a major shift in thinking when it comes to digital technologies and applications.
The benefits are far-reaching: from manufacturing and distribution, to regional and metropolitan business, to social services such as health and education.
Without reliable, affordable high-speed broadband, businesses of all sizes will be left behind our global competitors.
Take the manufacturing sector as an example.
This sector has the opportunity to drive entirely new efficiencies using digital technologies to gain oversight of products, from conception to disposal.
A comment by Bernard Charles, President and CEO of one of France's major manufacturers has always struck me as prophetic:
"In the future, all manufactured goods in the world will be digitally defined, engineered, simulated, produced and managed throughout their lifecycle."
Simply from a transportation perspective, digital tracking technology is already assisting manufacturers by allowing intimate control of the distribution chain.
Larry Smarr, the physicist and internet architect, pointed out in Canberra last year these technologies will also reshape the way we think about infrastructure management and result in savings for everyone.
Digital technologies will improve the way assets are planned, constructed and maintained.
Smart infrastructure will be equipped with sensor technology to detect movement and deterioration.
The information will be monitored constantly allowing better timed and targeted responses.
In the energy sector, service providers plan to use broadband to improve the way they monitor and manage power distribution.
In Australia and elsewhere, providers are already testing intelligent network technology to gain specific, real-time data on energy usage.
They aim to improve grid management to drive efficiency, reliability and the installation of small renewable generators.
Using connected, digital infrastructure may also help power companies to combat the long-term costs of shifting to renewable energy.
Importantly in the current environment, the improved use of telecommunications could also result in energy and travel costs-savings for business.
In fact, a late 2007 report by Climate Risk estimated that these savings could be worth up to $6.6 billion dollars annually for Australia alone.
It noted a number of major opportunities for communications to improve energy efficiency, including:
- Remote appliance power management,
- De-centralised business districts,
- Real-time freight management,
- Increased renewable energy, and
- High Definition video conferencing.
These are exactly the kind of applications that will be made possible by the greater availability of affordable, high-speed services via the National Broadband Network.
All of these examples recognise the essential requirement for broadband infrastructure.
However, it is also important to note as the speakers at this conference help to make plain that the success of our digital economies will require more than infrastructure alone.
In Australia, we are working with industry to create plans to propagate digital technologies and processes across the economy.
Through consultations and discussions we have identified themes and priorities to drive Australia's digital economy
This includes key considerations around digital capabilities, confidence and content.
We are producing a roadmap to guide Government, businesses and innovators, to:
- develop new business models and services;
- address ongoing social and economic challenges;
- build skills and capabilities for effective participation;
- deliver productivity and social benefits; and
- improve living standards.
It will also consider emerging issues and trends in the digital economy.
It will canvass our ability to gain the economic and social benefits from the Government's investments, such as the National Broadband Network.
Among other things, key areas of discussion to emerge from our consultations have been:
- access to public sector information;
- developing our national digital skills base;
- ensuring a flexible regulatory environment; and
- using digital technologies to benefit the environment.
The roadmap will ensure that Australia is ready, to take advantage of the economic and social benefits made possible in the digital economy.
We will also be well-positioned to utilise our investments for productivity and improve our international standing.
As I have said, it is a great pleasure to be with you today and among so many people also working to understand these challenges.
I know that Australia is not alone in recognising the importance of broadband to our future prosperity.
We are not alone in our desire to drive innovation, trade and productivity utilising digital technologies.
Australia is proud to be leading investment in national broadband.
We are proud to be engaging with you here today and to collaborate across the world to help us all to shape the digital economy.
Thank you.
