Interview with Katie Woolf, Mix 104.9 Darwin

KATIE WOOLF, HOST: We know that families across the Northern Territory are set to have access to free NBN connection for twelve months. It's part of the Albanese Government's ongoing rollout of School Student Broadband Initiative, with the Territory's Department of Education joining and looking to provide this to primary and secondary school students. Now joining us on the line to tell us a little bit more about this initiative is indeed the Minister for Communications, the Honourable Michelle Rowland. Good morning to you, Minister.



MICHELLE ROWLAND, MINISTER FOR COMMUNICATIONS: Good morning, Katie.



WOOLF: Now, tell us a little bit more about this initiative and how families are going to be eligible for the NBN connection.



ROWLAND: Katie, part of the pandemic's many lessons was that we discovered that tens of thousands of school students right across Australia didn't have access to the internet at home, and that's for whatever reason; for some of them it's a cost of living issue, some families are complicated, they have particular personal circumstances. But for whatever reason, it did mean that students who didn't have access to the internet for remote learning were left behind. So, we funded in our October Budget last year, $4.5 million to enable NBN Co to provide free internet access to these families for a year. I'm very pleased that the Northern Territory Department of Education has become a nominating organisation, which means that Northern Territory school students will now be able to gain access to this free internet for a year at home.



WOOLF: Minister, it's a fantastic initiative by the sounds of things, because as you've touched on, there are kids that live in regional and remote areas who maybe aren't able to access the internet in the same way as the rest of us. Who's going to be eligible? Will it mostly be those that are living in those areas?



ROWLAND: Well, to be eligible a family needs to have a child living at home who's enrolled in school in 2023. They need to be referred by a nominating organisation, including, for example, the Northern Territory Department of Education. They need to have no active broadband service over the NBN network and they need to live in a premise where they can access a standard NBN service. I should make it clear too, Katie, NBN is delivered by different means. In most parts of Darwin, people will have fibre access, but it'll be different in some areas where they'll be accessing through, say, the fixed wireless or the satellite service. Irrespective of the technology, they'll be able to access that. So, we're trying to keep this as simple as possible. In a nutshell, if you don't have internet access, you'll be able to contact our NBN nominating agencies and get connected.



WOOLF: That was going to be my next question because I thought, what about for some of those kids that aren't able to sort of access the internet? How's it going to work?



ROWLAND: That's right, you can just access the internet through any infrastructure that's available at that premise. But NBN Co will do all the work. Basically, it's a matter of getting nominated, getting a voucher for it and activating that voucher. We're trying to make this simple. We know that people have a lot to do and probably some of these people haven't had access to the internet before, so it's going to be very new to them, but we want to make this as simple as possible.



WOOLF: Yeah, look, I think it's a great initiative and I think that education is so incredibly important. It should not matter where you live, we should be able to access a great education. And so much of that these days is online or you require the internet in so many different ways. Gone are the days, I suppose, when you and I were at school, where you're going through the old encyclopaedia and things like that.



ROWLAND: Absolutely, Katie and I heard from residents during the lockdown periods who said they would park their car outside fast food restaurants in the morning just to get the free Wi-Fi so their children could download their remote learning for the day. It's 2023, it's completely unacceptable. I think by this initiative, people are going to have whole new worlds opened up to them through access to the internet. Because, as your listeners will know, even the way we deal with governments and different agencies these days, you're expected to be online, and to take advantage of digital society you need to be connected in the first place.



WOOLF: Minister, there will be people listening this morning that are thinking, this sounds great, how can I get involved? Or, what is the process for them?



ROWLAND: What they can do is go to infrastructure.gov.au/SSBI, and you'll be able to see all the details there and how to access that. We're also, because we've got the Department of Education on board for students who are at school now, perhaps raising this with their principals or teachers. We are working with Northern Territory Education to try and roll out this information as quickly as possible. There are also a number of non-government organisations like the Smith Family, who have very specific programmes like Learning For Life and they've also been partnering really effectively with us because they know where these people live. St Vincent De Paul is another one. Most of these organisations have come on board and we're really pleased they have, because the whole point is we need to reach the people who need this assistance and that's what it's all about.



WOOLF: Well Minister for Communications, Federal Minister for Communications, Michelle Rowland, I really appreciate your time this morning. Thanks very much for having a chat with us.



ROWLAND: My pleasure, Katie. Have a great day.



WOOLF: You too.