Transcript - Minister Rowland STAND Press Conference

E&OE

ALISON BYRNES, MEMBER FOR CUNNINGHAM: Hi, I’m Alison Byrnes, Federal Member for Cunningham. It’s great to welcome Minister Rowland here today for the completion of our Sky Muster projects. It’s really important to stay connected during natural disasters. It can mean the difference between life and death.

Our first responders do an amazing job, and it’s important that they have the equipment that they need to receive and to communicate information during a natural disaster. Now I’ll hand over to Minister Rowland.

MICHELLE ROWLAND, MINISTER FOR COMMUNICATIONS: Thanks so much, Alison, and thank you for everything that you’ve been doing, advocating for your great community here in the Illawarra.

As Alison said, the first priority of any government is to keep its citizens safe. The Albanese Government takes this very seriously in terms of connectivity and the difference that can mean between life and death during natural disasters. Accessible and reliabile connectivity is absolutely essential, and that’s why I’m very pleased to announce three completed projects under the Strengthening Telecommunications Against Natural Disasters initiative, or STAND program. Here in the electorate of Cunningham, we now have enhanced connectivity to the NBN Sky Muster satellite service at Wollongong’s SES City Unit. We also have community WiFi facilities again provided through the NBN Sky Muster satellite service at Era and Burning Palms Surf Lifesaving Clubs.

Through these, we will have enhanced connectivity to our first responders - the SES. But we’ll also have access to community WiFi available for residents who find themselves in trouble during those natural disasters. And our hearts, of course, go out to so many Australians who are being impacted at the moment. But they can rest assured that resilience and making sure we have the best available connectivity and reliable communications services during times of natural disasters is a first priority of the Albanese Government.

It is great to make this announcement here today, but also in particular to acknowledge the ongoing work the SES has been doing both here in the Illawarra and right around this great state and, of course, right around Australia. We know that this enhanced connectivity through the over 1,000 STAND projects right around Australia, which will all be completed by the end of next month, will make a measurable difference in times of disaster.

JOURNALIST: Michelle, can you explain exactly how this satellite will work, where it’s fixed, what it looks like and what the cost was for the Wollongong SES?

ROWLAND:,We have on these particular facilities an uplink to the satellite service. Some of these cost more than others, but we all know that during times of natural disaster, we need to have that connectivity when the land‑based services go down.What the service is, is a link between the actual facility and the NBN Sky Muster satellite service. We know that during times of disaster when the land‑based mobile towers have been taken out, and in particular when the power has gone out, that connectivity can be lost. So, this will mean that even during times when those terrestrial services are down, we will be able to have that connectivity still.

JOURNALIST: Has Wollongong ever suffered such a loss as a city?

ROWLAND: Well, I’ll let Alison explain that, but in terms of the fact that we have, unfortunately, more frequent and more volatile natural disasters, including bushfires and floods over the last couple of years, this remains an area where we must continue to be vigilant. But, Alison, you would have seen a lot and heard from your communities about how important this is.

BYRNES: We have. Burning Palms and Era are right up in the middle of our national park and it’s really important. They service a lot of tourists. We’ve got the Figure 8 Rock Pools up there. If there is a natural disaster, it’s important that people have connectivity and that the SES and our emergency services have a connectivity for any natural disaster.

JOURNALIST: The State Government is considering the future of this building and moving staff away, would that affect the rollout of this infrastructure or this connectivity at all?

ROWLAND: This infrastructure has already been provided but I know that exactly to your point, that issue has been raised by a number of local residents and whilst this is essentially a State matter, I know that Alison is well on top of it and will be prepared to answer that.

BYRNES: Yeah, we obviously won’t want to see any jobs lost here in the Illawarra and at our Wollongong office here at the SES, and I understand the local member Paul Scully has been communicating with the Minister’s office and the Premier’s office to get some more information about what their plans are.

JOURNALIST: Minister, do you think the Government should rule out relocating any of the SES operations from Wollongong to Homebush?

ROWLAND: This is a matter for the State Government. But whatever decisions are made, I think we should bear one thing in mind -it should always be about keeping Australians safe and keeping Australians safe means ensuring that the workforce is well catered for and that those facilities are fit for purpose. I think, as Alison has well articulated, any job losses would certainly be one that would be detrimental to the ability to deliver for the community.

JOURNALIST: Would the Federal Government intervene to stop any move?

ROWLAND: We can well articulate our view on that, which is exactly as I would have expressed, and that is that the first priority of the Albanese Government is to keep all Australians safe.

JOURNALIST: Can you explain why the satellite has been erected in Montague Street site rather than Coniston or rather than Wollongong, which have greater areas of population?

ROWLAND: This would have been undertaken by independent internal processes to be the best site for that location and this is the determination that was made.

JOURNALIST: When did the Government start looking at this kind of backup satellite infrastructure?

ROWLAND: This was a result of the 2019‑2020 bushfires and there was a Royal Commission into that. One of the key findings of that was that during times of disaster, first responders, unfortunately, did not have the best access to connectivity, so that was identified as a key issue. As I said, over 1,000 sites were identified as being ones in which having that connectivity would make a demonstrable difference to people’s ability to communicate.

JOURNALIST: So, it’s my understanding that the connectivity will only be accessible to the staff in that SES building at the time. How many staff and how is that improving communications for the greater Illawarra?

ROWLAND: That is a particular stream of the STAND project that is for particular first responders. There are other streams that include community WiFi facilities at those two other locations that I explained. But the first priority of course is to ensure this those first responders have that connectivity and, again, that was one of the key findings of the various inquiries that were done post those bushfires.

JOURNALIST: How’s the Government going with the movement in regards to spectrum fees for regional broadcast [indistinct]?

ROWLAND: This has been considered as part of the future of Broadcasting Working Group, the first meeting of which I chaired only recently. I joined only recently as the new Minister. But, of course, this is an ongoing concern to regional media. I have met with regional media players and am very much alive to their concerns. Spectrum is a finite resource and we also need to ensure that part of the future of Spectrum, its usage and also the fees that apply to it are considered as part of the broader media reform package.

We are well advanced on that package already within 150 days, including our work that we’re doing not only in terms of prominence, but also anti‑siphoning. But I’m well aware this is a key component that we need to address going forward and it is a key challenge for regional broadcasters.

JOURNALIST: Any idea on a time frame of when we can maybe expect to be updated on those conversations that you’re having?

ROWLAND: I expect that this will be considered at the next future of Broadcasting Working Group meeting in the near future. I’ll ensure that the industry is kept well-informed. In the meantime, we are very open to all suggestions about how regional media can be supported. We only had recently, for example, our regional newspapers grants. Of course, regional TV is an essential part of that mix as well. We need to ensure that whatever we do recognises that ultimately this is about the viability and sustainability of media diversity right across Australia, including in regional areas.

JOURNALIST: Are you confident that the deal you’re heading toward also protect the loss of any future jobs or networks? We’ve lost an entire network in Wollongong which has reduced the capacity of the local media to share local content. Are you sort of making any guarantees about the protection of regional diversity?

ROWLAND: Well, that continues to be one of the key challenges; and diversity, of course, takes many forms. It’s what forms of platforms that we’ve got, the types of news that we’ve got. But I think, ultimately, this is about giving consumers choice. We know that consumers want two things: they want diversity but they want localism as well. We know that the news media bargaining code is being reviewed at the moment and that has been an important step in ensuring that news journalists are properly remunerated for the work that they do. But this continues to be an area that is really challenged by outside forces, including platforms and including the traditional advertising models for which traditional news media has relied. So, we are very alive to this. We know that there is a great deal of work to do in the lead‑up to this, but we are very much up to the task, and within 150 days we’ve already kicked off that process and I’ll continue to engage with the sector and have more to say.

JOURNALIST: Can I just take you back to the provision of satellite services and community, and just more broadly on the south coast. A local review of communication failures during the Black Summer bushfires found that one of the particular problems of providing services was that the data that the telecommunication providers make decisions on, how they provide services based on census data collected in August, when no‑one is holidaying on the beautiful south coast. So when the bushfires came through and there were hundreds of thousands of people, and assistance fell over. Are you aware to that kind of concern and what’s your thoughts on how to remedy that because the census data and electoral rolls, they’re not based on these sort of transitioning populations?

ROWLAND: We are very much aware of the concerns and I think that there were salient lessons to be taken out of those inquiries post‑bushfire. The challenge of any government at a State and Federal level is to be able to take those learnings and translate them into something that’s better for the future and more resilient. We have a great pipeline of work to do and our Minister Murray Watt has been very active in this area. We will have more to say in the upcoming Budget as well on this very issue of resilience.

JOURNALIST: It may require a change in law, it may require legislation to address the commercial ownership that those providers have been given through legislation; is that something that you’re willing to consider that would add a requirement to increase the capacity in regional areas?

ROWLAND: Well, we are willing to look at anything that ends up being in the best interests of Australians.

JOURNALIST: Is it something that’s hit your desk, though, is this issue at all?

ROWLAND: I’m well aware that this is being considered as part of the future of Broadcasting Working Group, but certainly we will examine this closer going forward.

JOURNALIST: Just to the conference on the weekend. Do you think the State Parliamentary Labor branch overreached yesterday by shutting down the attempt to roll back the protest penalties in New South Wales?

ROWLAND: Well, having been chairing that conference over the weekend, this was a conference in which many different and diverse views were given, but that is the nature of the Labor Party’s conference. It is open to ideas. It is also open to the public and transparent, and as you saw at the end of the day, democracy prevailed.

JOURNALIST: There were howls of shame though as the vote was passed and I guessed the sense that the parliamentary branch was just trying to avoid a political issue come March 2023. Do you think they’ve misstepped here?

ROWLAND: Well, the parliamentary party has made its decision and that decision was supported by the conference.

JOURNALIST: At a Federal level, do you think you would have got a different result?

ROWLAND: Well, I don’t chair the Federal conference so I really couldn’t hypothesise. But it was certainly a great honour to be chairing such a historic conference after four years.

JOURNALIST: Alison, can I just briefly ask you: are you confident the Budget or the knife hasn’t been taken to any of the infrastructure plans for the Illawarra in the upcoming Budget? Are we going to see the batteries, the excellence centre, the GP urgent care clinic? Is that all going to be in the Budget?

BYRNES: Well, I’m really excited about our local projects down here in the Illawarra and I’m very confident that they’ll all be in the Budget.

JOURNALIST: Minister King’s given you that thumbs up, Alison, it’s all there?

SPEAKER: Across all of my local projects, I’ve been following them up and I understand they will be in the Budget.

JOURNALIST: Thank you.

BYRNES: Thank you.

ROWLAND: Thank you so much.