Brian Mitchell (Lyons, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Communications. What is the Albanese Labor government doing to boost mobile coverage and broadband for regional communities and expand connectivity on farms?

Michelle Rowland (Greenway, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Communications) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for his question. The government understands the vital role that communications plays for those living, working in and visiting regional and rural Australia. That's why we took to the election our Better Connectivity Plan for Regional and Rural Australia, as well as a plan for a better NBN. Our October budget backs this by delivering on our election commitments, with $2.2 billion for regional connectivity. That's a boost of over $800 million compared to the March budget of the previous government.

Our plan provides $656 million for further rounds of the Mobile Black Spot Program, improving communications resilience—which we know is so important, given the recent and recurring natural disasters—the Regional Connectivity Program and an independent national mobile coverage audit. There are two other initiatives relevant to the member's question: $6 million to extend and enhance the Regional Tech Hub, which provides free expert advice on improving connectivity literacy, and $30 million to expand on-farm connectivity. Connectivity literacy is vital, because it informs decisions about what solutions can best extend connectivity from one part of a farm to the other. This month is the Regional Tech Hub's connectivity month, and I was delighted to launch this important initiative last week with the National Farmers Federation at the sheep farm of Jen and Jack in Gunning in New South Wales. Jen is actually the manager of the Regional Tech Hub and she described what a game changer connectivity is. Like many farms, they have mobile coverage at the farmhouse, but it doesn't reach the shearing shed or all corners of the property.

The knowledge of, and the capacity to deploy, technology to extend and make use of that better coverage can make a real difference. Importantly, we know that investment in farming connectivity solutions can realise significant productivity gains. It has been estimated that as much as a $20 billion increase in the gross value of agricultural production could be achieved by the uptake of advanced farming technologies. Improving connectivity will enable agriculture businesses to use digital technologies that increase productivity and efficiency and importantly, improve safety. That's what the delivery of our election commitments for the Regional Tech Hub and improving on-farm connectivity is all about.

This government is committed to growing the economy and supporting regional communities by investing in such productivity-enhancing digital infrastructure, and we have delivered substantially increased funding in our budget for this very purpose. This is in addition to the expansion of full fibre access to the NBN for a further 1.5 million Australian homes and businesses—with, importantly, 660,000 of these upgrades in regional and rural Australia.