Source: Australian Ministers 1
THE MOST CONNECTED CONTINENT
I acknowledge the Traditional Owners, the Ngunnawal and Ngambri people, and those with connections to the lands of the ACT.
I pay my respects to Elders past and present, and First Nations people joining, including First Nations Digital Inclusion Advisory Group co-chair Associate Professor Lyndon Ormond-Parker.
The Advisory Group continues to progress digital inclusion for First Nations people, particularly those in regional and remote Australia.
In December, the Group delivered the First Nations Digital Inclusion Roadmap: 2026 and Beyond, a blueprint for government and industry as we work towards closing the digital divide.
This follows the Advisory Group’s initial report to Government, which helped to inform the First Nations Community Wi-Fi Program – which has been rolled out in around 20 communities.
Last week, I announced a contestable program to provide the next tranche of Community Wi-Fi.
We have also set up a First Nations Digital Support Hub and Network of Digital Mentors, and improved national data collection.
These initiatives are making a real difference to First Nations communities, which remain some of the nation’s most digitally isolated.
Of course, there is a lot more work to do – collectively – to close the digital divide.
I thank the Advisory Group for their on-going commitment and progress on this, and I welcome their participation at the CommsDay Regional and Remote Forum.
It is wonderful to be part of this inaugural – and very timely – forum focussed on the future of regional and remote connectivity in Australia.
Thank you, Grahame Lynch, for bringing together industry, consumer advocates, and government representatives in the nation’s capital.
It’s great to see so many familiar faces; I know many of you have travelled far to take part.
From Forthside in Tasmania to Belyuen in the Top End, from Moruya on the NSW South Coast to Port Augusta in South Australia, from King Island to Palm Island, everywhere I travel across regional, rural and remote Australia, I see the work of building Australia’s future is gathering pace.
Whether it’s Medicare, superannuation, childcare, or the National Broadband Network, Labor governments have a proud history of expanding universal access to essential services that Australians rely on.
Labor founded the NBN to provide fast, reliable and affordable internet to all people in Australia, regardless of where they live.
Families and businesses in our regions and suburbs should have equal access to the opportunities the NBN delivers.
And Labor’s NBN is already saving households more than 100 hours and $2,580 per year in avoided travel time and costs.
And we are very proud of our record on delivery.
When we came into office, fewer than 300,000 premises had access to NBN fibre upgrades. Today, more than 4.3 million premises do.
The Albanese Government is on track to reach our commitment of extending fibre upgrades to 5 million premises by the end of 2025 – on time and within budget.
Today, there are an additional 2.7 million higher-speed plans taken up – an 80 per cent increase from when we came into office.
We have delivered our $480 million upgrades to NBN Co’s Fixed Wireless and Satellite services, more than doubling average speeds.
Around 800,000 households and businesses in regional, remote and peri-urban areas can now benefit from faster broadband and increased data.
This includes 122,000 premises formerly in the satellite footprint.
This freed up satellite capacity and enabled NBN Co to launch a Sky Muster Premium service with download speeds of up to 100 Mbps and unmetered data.
This resulted in a 75 per cent surge in data consumption for active Skymuster users, delivering important economic and social benefits in health and education.
Our Government is listening to the community – including through the 2024 Regional Telecommunications Review – about the importance they place on increasing minimum regulated broadband speeds to reflect today’s needs.
The current legislated guarantee is for only 25Mbps download speeds, which does not reflect the growing capability of the NBN and other telecommunications networks in Australia, consumer expectations or emerging international norms.
I have asked my Department to commence work on a public consultation on the pathway to increase the minimum download speed to 100Mbps.
An increase over time to Australia’s regulated broadband speeds will bring Australia in line with international best practice and help to power the economy.
And ensure fair and equitable access to services that better meet the needs of users in our increasingly digitally-driven economy.
It’s no secret I have a passion for my portfolio.
As Communications Minister, I’ve seen the transformation connectivity is having at every level of our society and economy.
The difference it is making to people, businesses and communities and our regions.
Building Australia’s future to be the most connected continent is more than critical infrastructure – it’s about the long-term interests of consumers.
It demands forward-looking regulatory environments that facilitate competition.
Over the past few years, 5G has been deployed, fibre access expanded, and low orbit satellites are providing next generation services.
Yet the Universal Service Obligation remains stuck in a different era, entirely at odds with society’s needs for mobility.
Introduced in the 1990s, the USO is a consumer protection to support reasonable access to landlines and payphones for people in Australia.
This was a time when the voice-only ‘brick’ phone was exciting and expensive!
The very first 1G phone was introduced in Australia by Telecom in 1987, retailing at a massive $4,250 or nearly $12,000 in today’s dollars.
The idea of being able to walk and talk was novel. The concepts of mobile web browsing or video calling were almost non-existent.
Today, mobile phones are comparatively affordable, and their use is ubiquitous.
The Universal Service Obligation is as dated as those brick phones of the past.
The only way to build regional Australia’s mobile future is with a modern USO, where mobile coverage is an explicit policy objective for the first time.
And I am proud to say this is what Labor will deliver.
The Albanese Government, if reelected, will legislate a Universal Outdoor Mobile Obligation, known as UOMO.
This is about recognising, in the truest sense of the word, that mobile connectivity is an essential service.
UOMO will require mobile operators to provide outdoor mobile coverage nearly everywhere in Australia where you can see the sky.
This includes the around 70 per cent of our vast continent that does not have mobile connectivity.
UOMO will enable more Australians to send messages and make voice calls, including calls to Triple Zero, during emergencies and natural disasters.
This responds to a key piece of feedback from the Regional Telecommunications Review about the need for multiple connection paths.
And unlike universal landline and broadband where Telstra and NBN Co are effectively the sole providers of the obligation, an express policy objective of Labor’s Universal Outdoor Mobile Obligation is to facilitate competitive coverage.
This reform will ensure up to 5 million square kilometers of new and competitive outdoor mobile coverage across Australia, including more than 37,000 kilometers of new coverage along roads and highways in regional and rural communities.
Just think about what this means for the farmer out in the paddock, the injured hiker on the trail, or the distressed parent whose car has broken down.
I welcome the strong endorsements of ACCAN, the National Farmers’ Federation, regional telecommunication stakeholders like the Better Internet for Regional and Rural Australia group, the Regional Telecommunications Independent Review Committee, the NSW Rural Fire Service, the First Nations Digital Advisory Council and a growing list of local and regional councils.
The only mindless opposition is coming from the Coalition.
The Nationals say we are going too slow.
The Liberals say we should not be doing this at all or going too fast.
This smorgasbord of incoherence and freewheeling incompetence is emblematic of a Liberal-National Party that does not know what it stands for.
In contrast, the Labor Party is very clear on where we want to go.
The Albanese Government will work closely with industry, regulators and stakeholders to introduce legislation in 2025, and work on this has commenced.
The initial focus will be on increasing access to messaging and voice services, with a public-safety focus.
We expect the voice and SMS obligation to be implemented by late 2027, with many Australians likely to benefit well before then.
Given our audience here, I’d like to take this opportunity to provide further detail around the regulatory and policy context, and thank them for their participation in this reform process.
Firstly, we understand this is a rapidly-developing market and our implementation timeline has been designed with regard to this.
Where warranted by global supply, spectrum or capability factors, our legislation will afford mobile operators appropriate flexibility on implementation.
Our Government will also engage with industry and examine incentives to promote competition objectives and public interest outcomes.
As I outlined earlier, a top priority of the Government is to facilitate a healthy supply side market, that offers carriers and consumers choice.
Promoting competition is an express policy feature of UOMO’s design.
This aim is to bring forward investments and product partnerships, and remove market barriers to enable Australians to contact emergency services through D2D.
Our policy announcement is a demand signal to global low orbit providers – we want you to expand your capability in Australia.
The D2D capability is initially expected to provide baseline text messaging, then voice calls and, in time, limited mobile data.
Broadly, industry is targeting the availability of D2D messaging from late this year, followed by voice from 2026 onwards.
Our Government’s expectation is that these services will be well and truly in the market by late 2027.
Secondly, D2D is not a replacement for terrestrial mobile networks or the USO.
It will complement existing networks with a thin coverage layer, and ensure we cover as much of Australia as possible, for the benefit of all.
Labor is filling a giant “black spot” that could simply never be addressed through mobile tower deployment at this scale or speed.
As you are well aware, terrestrial-based network expansion can be a “law of diminishing returns” up against challenging geography and customer ratios that do not stack-up to commercial viability.
The Government remains committed to existing co-investment programs, such as the Mobile Black Spot Program, and the Mobile Network Hardening Program.
These programs will evolve with UOMO to deliver the best public policy outcomes for regional communities – of this I am very confident.
Thirdly, I want to affirm our commitment to engagement.
The expanded Universal Service Obligation framework follows two years of evidence-based groundwork, consultation and engagement.
Early this term, I recognised the potential of the opportunity of LEOSat technology.
I established the LEO Satellite Working Group to bring together the perspectives of global operators, Australian telcos, spectrum and engineering experts, and regional stakeholders.
The Working Group, and data emerging from our LEOSat technical trials, is helping to inform our ongoing work on universal services modernisation.
We have also been engaging with:
- Global and domestic industry on D2D technology roadmaps;
- the Australian Communications and Media Authority on radio communications spectrum considerations;
- the Regional Telecommunications Review, local councils and the First Nations Digital Inclusion Advisory Group;
- And, importantly, regional and remote consumers and communities.
The Albanese Government, if re-elected, will continue this collaborative approach, working with the satellite industry, regulators, mobile network operators, consumer groups and other stakeholders as we develop, and introduce, legislation this year.
Finally, we have expectations of industry around providing clear, accurate and accessible public information for consumers.
Consumers need a clear understanding of the capability of D2D services and device compatibility.
We are not talking about streaming Netflix from the Pilbara.
I’ve been advised by industry that different devices are being rigorously tested for compatibility, and that more handsets are becoming eligible.
This is in keeping with international developments.
We now have in place a more robust handset testing scheme built around the collaboration of the CommsAlliance, test labs at the University of Technology Sydney and the overarching regime administered by the ACMA.
This will be leveraged to ensure consumers are better educated and receive reliable information.
Because LEOSats orbit close to the Earth, they can provide services to mobile phones that usually communicate through terrestrial networks.
Even during emergencies, when power outages impact the availability of local mobile towers, LEOSats can provide a thin layer of coverage.
Last month, from Los Angeles, we saw this capability in action.
As the highly destructive and deadly wildfires struck, thousands of messages were sent via D2D by thousands of people using standard unmodified devices.
In the depths of crisis, people could text loved ones, neighbours, and, most importantly, emergency services – even when terrestrial networks were silenced.
The public safety implications of D2D cannot be underestimated, particularly during natural disasters – which are becoming far more frequent and destructive.
Closer to home, over the Summer, Australians were transfixed by the disappearance of bush walker Hadi Nazari who got lost in Kosciuszko National Park.
Almost two weeks after he went missing in the unforgiving wilderness he was, thankfully, found alive.
The significant search and rescue operation included a dozen SES teams, 200 personnel, more than 4000 volunteer hours and specialist aircraft.
Hadi’s location could have been known within minutes with a charged mobile phone, Direct 2 Device technology, and a clear view to the sky.
D2D will substantially expand opportunity for people to seek help if they are lost, injured or facing natural disasters in areas without terrestrial mobile coverage.
It will give consumers more connectivity options, as mobile networks are already required to carry all Triple Zero voice calls over their networks.
Early mover markets include the US and New Zealand, where we are seeing limited text to emergency services emerge as an early D2D capability.
In the US, T-Mobile has opened registration for a Beta program, with priority given to first responder agencies and individuals.
One New Zealand provider currently offers D2D text services across a number of premium phones.
My Department is exploring the feasibility and desirability of expanding the Triple Zero service to have message-based capability – recognising that access to Triple Zero by voice is preferred in time critical situations.
It is also important that people know which devices can access D2D services, and the Government will work with the industry regulator to ensure there is clear public information on this.
This is just the first step towards reform to the USO.
The Department will commence consultation to inform the development of legislation, and we encourage all stakeholders to engage in that process.
The Government has also sought advice on incentives and the removal of barriers to support competition outcomes and public interest objectives.
That work is also underway, and if the Government is returned to office, will gather pace as this would be our top communications legislative priority for 2025.
As part of this process, we will develop a roadmap for a basic data obligation, alongside voice and text as technology evolves.
The Government continues to work through the recommendations of the 2024 Regional Telecommunications Review alongside progress on USO reform.
Undertaken every three years, the review is an opportunity for people living and working outside major cities to share their experiences, views and expectations regarding connectivity and telecommunications services.
The community response to the 2024 review represented a four-fold increase in participation on the previous review.
The unprecedented interest in the work of the Regional Telecommunications Review reflects the importance placed on connectivity in these communities.
The Committee conducted online consultations and 20 in-person sessions across Australia from Thursday Island to Geraldton, Katherine and Benalla.
In total, more than 4,000 stakeholders took part and more than 3,000 survey responses were received.
The Committee engaged with industry throughout the process to address issues raised during consultations and potential reform options were workshopped.
I’d like to thank Committee Chair, the Honorable Alannah MacTiernan – who will be addressing the Forum this morning.
As well as Committee Members Kristy Sparrow, the Honorable Fiona Nash, Dr Jessa Rogers and Ian Kelly for their extensive work, expert advice and engagement on the ground.
The report’s 14 recommendations address a diverse range of telecommunications issues – from enhanced mobile coverage, consumer affordability, universal service modernisation and the role of LEOSats, through to First Nations inclusion and digital literacy.
We are considering the report’s findings and recommendations and continue to work with key partners like all of you here in the room.
As I noted at the outset, Labor governments have a proud history of expanding universal access and UOMO is the next important piece of architecture.
Australians are proud and early adopters of technology, and we are ambitious to leverage this advantage as part of building a better future.
There is tremendous activity and buzz in the communications space right now.
It’s a time of reform, in-sync with incredible innovation that is making once unviable goals a reality.
This Forum is shining a spotlight on the opportunities this presents for regional, rural and remote Australia.
We know some of these communities face connectivity challenges their city counterparts do not.
Since coming to office, we have been working hard to bridge this divide.
At the last election, we took a record regional telecommunications and connectivity package to the election.
Since then, the Government and NBN Co have expanded fibre access and upgraded fixed wireless, collectively enabling higher speeds to a footprint of nearly 5 million homes and businesses.
Government and industry co-investment has delivered 146 local projects under our Regional Connectivity Plan.
And more than 150 base stations have been built under the Mobile Black Spot Program this term.
These projects have helped carry over 43 million calls, including 48,000 emergency calls.
We are backing Aussie farmers and ag-tech suppliers through our hugely popular On Farm Connectivity Program, which the National Farmers Federation has singled out as one of the best Commonwealth initiatives ever for their sector.
NBN Co has delivered free Community Wi-Fi for First Nations communities, and free home broadband to school kids who would otherwise go without.
And just this week, we have tripled down on our ambition and optimism for the future with our announcement of a Universal Outdoor Mobile Obligation.
The fact is the Albanese Government is delivering with competence, and with a Labor heart.
And the biggest risk to this progress is a Liberal-National Coalition Government.
Let there be no doubt that if Peter Dutton becomes Prime Minister he will privatise the NBN to pay for his $600 billion nuclear fantasy.
It is Australian consumers and regional communities who will pay the price.
In nine years, the Coalition took Australia back from fibre to copper, and created a new acronym for the universal access framework which they were unwilling to reform.
And just before they were voted out, they sneakily tried to push up NBN wholesale prices by inflation plus three per cent on some products.
Their new Shadow Minister – the third in three years – never once mentioned connectivity during her six years in Parliament before coming into the portfolio.
And Mr Dutton will ensure the Shadow’s effective title will be the ‘Minister for Privatisation’ – not the Minister for Communications.
Australia can do much better than that.
I want to close by thanking the industry, consumer groups, and indeed regional and stakeholders across this portfolio for your engagement throughout this term.
We have learnt much from you. We have left nothing on the field, and sought to do our best.
As a marginal seat holder, and as I’ve said before previous elections, I’ll either be seeing a lot more of you or a lot less of you.
And an important election contest will be fought over the coming month or two.
What I do want you to know is that I and the Albanese Government genuinely value your expertise, and your voice has made a difference.
Now is not a time for thinking small, looking back or aiming low.
This is a time to lean-in to opportunities and forge ahead in making Australia the most connected continent.
Labor is doing this with one eye on the sky, and the other watching out for what’s best for all Australians – regardless of who – or where – they are.
Every Australian deserves access to fast, reliable and affordable connectivity.
Let’s keep working together to build our future, and deliver the modern world-class communications network our country demands and deserves.
Thank you.
MIL OSI News –