Katie Allen (Higgins, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

We all know we live in a fast-paced and informational age, and that's never been more obvious than in the COVID pandemic that we're currently living through. Ensuring that Australia has world-leading telecommunications infrastructure is one of the Morrison government's top economic priorities, because the forthcoming roll-out of the 5G network is going to be very important to underpin our prosperity and economic opportunities going forward. I am very pleased to be a member of the Standing Committee on Communications and the Arts, which recently handed down the report on the inquiry into 5G, The Next Gen Future. It is very timely for us to look at this particular issue. The importance of telecommunications infrastructure cannot be stressed enough. In fact, the implementation of the NBN, which is on track to be completed this month, in 2020, has already seen a huge contribution to our GDP. It has created up to 5,400 new businesses and supported 2,900 new jobs. These figures are only climbing.

I'm also delighted to be a government member of the Joint Standing Committee on the NBN. It has been a very interesting time for me, sitting on both of these interrelated committees. Australians need fast and reliable internet now more than ever as they continue to work at home and learn online. I think this is particularly important. I was recently hosting a Zoom conference with members of my constituency, and the guest speaker was none other than Professor Ian Harper, who is a world-renowned economist. He was asked what he thought the future held with regards to what we would learn post COVID. One of the things he said is we would learn to work more from home. I did make the comment that perhaps men would learn to work more from home, since I think there are many women who have been working in a flexible environment using the internet over the last 20 years. Women have been early uptake users of communications and using these sorts of technologies from home so that they can have a flexible work-life balance and manage the many commitments that they do have.

My constituents have told me how they have taught their parents and grandparents to use FaceTime. I myself made a little video for my Facebook so that we could get more constituents using FaceTime and getting online so they can communicate with their families while in isolation. We have seen businesses using online learning and online communication. In my office we have been using Skype and Zoom to communicate more broadly with my electorate. So it's been a very interesting time during COVID, but it does really bring to the fore the fact that the internet is the future.

The government has achieved so much in the past six years with regards to telecommunications, and the introduction of 5G continues to build on this important trend. In order to maintain Australia's current leading position in the global system for mobile communications connectivity index score and to facilitate future economic prosperity, Australia is welcoming the 5G network rollout. There are many benefits of this. As I mentioned, the report that has been just been handed down is called The next gen future: Inquiry into the deployment, adoption and application of 5G in Australia, and it really has affirmed to me personally, and also to the committee, the benefits of 5G. I welcome the comments made by my good friend the member for Moncrieff earlier in this debate, where she explained how she saw the wonders of the internet going forward, the internet of things. I have to say I'm quite jealous of that visit; I was home in Higgins and unable to participate in the visit. But it was very clear that the new technologies that are coming at us at speed are not just the domain of sci-fi; they're now here with us and they're going to change the way that we do business, the way we connect with families, the way we connect with the globe at lightning speed. I'd like to acknowledge the member for Lyne, the chair of the committee, and the work he did in helping to hand down the report, and all the other committee members who were very diligent in their assessment of the inquiry and the submissions that were made to this inquiry.

Australia, along with the rest of the world, is really on the brink of experiencing what we dub now the fourth industrial revolution, or the digital revolution. I often like to say that the paint is not yet dry on the digital revolution. In fact, I believe that we have gone through a massive social revolution as a result of us now being able to work and play in a very different way. There's been a sixfold increase of data downloaded onto mobile handsets in the four years leading up to 2018, which is evidence of the immense changes that we are going through as we experience the internet of things going forward. It's very important that Australia is alive to the opportunities that this provides. These circumstances really do necessitate an upgrade from our current 4G infrastructure to the proposed 5G.

5G technology promises great capacity and faster data speeds and significantly lower signal latency and delay, and it will support a larger number of devices in a given area. This will be absolutely critical for digitally reliant industries to be productive and competitive in a global market. The committee has heard that the 5G rollout will allow solutions to some of our most compelling challenges at the global and national level. It has predicted that 5G technology will also be hugely beneficial to those in regional and remote Australia. I know myself, as a medical practitioner, with the use of telehealth to prevent patients from having to travel for many hours to get to my clinic, I could actually do a lot of my care across the internet line through telehealth. We know that those strong connections will be incredibly important.

So the committee made a number of recommendations. In fact, it made 14 wide-ranging and productive recommendations, a handful of which I'll consider today. Importantly, it noted that we need to be aware of the issues of manufacturing, and that has been an issue that has been very much in the front mind of the Morrison government in our post-COVID plan for the future. We understand that we need to be alive to the opportunities for manufacturing, and manufacturing of 5G infrastructure in Australia in particular. This includes advanced manufacturing for components and equipment used for the rollout of the 5G networks. This could be supported through the establishment of a 5G R&D fund to fast-track development. It could also involve manufacturing partnerships with countries like Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States. I note here is the chair for the Committee on Treaties, and I'm sure he will have an important role to play in ensuring we have a strong relationship with regards to advanced manufacturing in our treaties relationship with other countries. This will also enable our 5G rollout not just to have domestic benefits but to also have international benefits. So in this way, the 5G network could help support a more diversified economy, which we know will be incredibly important in our post-COVID environment.

The Next gen report also found that we should be reviewing ICT curricula for roles in 5G related industries. TAFE, accredited training providers and tertiary institutions should be modified also to ensure graduates are industry ready. Something we have noticed in particular moving forward is that we need our students and our youth to be ready for the future, and we need them to be skilled and trained for the new jobs that are coming online at speed. In particular, the committee recommends that the government lift apprenticeships in the ICT sector. These are jobs for the future which the rollout of the 5G network will support both directly and indirectly.

The committee also noted that there were concerns about network and data security of 5G equipment and that there are cyberthreats that are sophisticated and constantly evolving. Australia has a strong track record of data protection, but we must continue to strive for this to be robust.

We also noted that there were concerns from the community about the perceived health threats from 5G, and I'd like to reassure the community, after having reviewed all of the submissions, that the committee felt very strongly that the threats that people perceived were a problem are not indeed a problem. That is because the intended frequency of the 5G network will stay well below any harmful radiation—in fact, it is lower than visible light. It appears that most of the confusion that has resulted is from misinformation and a lack of awareness about the 5G infrastructure. The committee does recommend that a public health information campaign would be a very important component of ensuring that 5G is well recognised by the community and can be safely rolled out. There needs to be education and awareness to ensure that, indeed, the community members that are confused or misinformed have their fears dispelled by a careful campaign to understand the information that it is actually a safe thing to do.

In conclusion, I'd like to say that the technological progress for Australia is really on an irreversible trajectory and Australia cannot be left behind. We need to be ready for the digital revolution that is upon us and we need to ensure that we can seize new ideas an innovations. Importantly, it will help from the bedrock of Australia's economic prosperity.

Debate adjourned.

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