I am delighted to be here today at this important forum, joining both those gathered here in person, and those online.
Thank you to Paul Twomey for his warm introduction, and my thanks to Stephen Conroy for organising this event and for all those who have assisted.
Stephen and others have brought together people with both vision and the capacity to turn vision into reality - dreamers and experts, pragmatists and digital warriors.
Earlier this year the Australian Government made a historic commitment to the future of broadband, jobs and the future of the Australian economy, the commitment to build the National Broadband Network.
We are committed to building the NBN because we believe broadband is essential to building a stronger Australia - to the jobs and the economy of the future.
As I said in launching our plan for the NBN, broadband is the infrastructure of the 21st century. Just as railway tracks laid the future for the 19th century, and electricity grids and highways laid the future in the 20th century, so broadband is the core infrastructure of the new century.
It is critical if Australia is to compete successfully in the global digital economy and create the jobs and industries of the future. It is also essential for many of the technologies that will help us reduce carbon emissions, improve health services, create a world class education system, and improve opportunities for all Australians no matter where they live.
High speed broadband is, in short, at the heart of building a stronger, fairer Australia ready for the challenges of the 21st century.
That is why the Government has taken the step of establishing the NBN Co.
The reality is that Australia's current broadband infrastructure is not up to scratch. Slow broadband is holding our nation back:
* Average broadband speeds in Australia are 40 times slower than the world leader, Japan.
* Out of 30 leading countries, we are behind all but three countries. We're behind Turkey. We're behind the Slovak Republic.
* Australians want high-speed broadband, but we are in the bottom half of OECD countries for broadband take-up (16 out of 30 in 2008).
Before the Government came to office two years ago, we had seen a series of failed promises for better broadband. 18 plans in a period of 12 years, while Australia fell behind.
When the Government came to office, we began the work to assess how we can best deliver a national broadband network, and earlier this year, I announced that the Australian Government will be investing up to $43 billion over eight years to build and operate a National Broadband Network, delivering world leading super-fast broadband to all Australian homes and businesses.
As I said at the time, this is like the building of the Snowy River scheme, the Sydney Harbour Bridge, and the national highway network. It is an historic act of nation building, and it demonstrates our great confidence in Australia's future - future industries, future jobs and future prosperity.
Delivering the NBN is a massive national task, and we are delighted to have someone with Mike Quigley's experience leading the NBN. His work is critically important nation-building work, because delivering high speed broadband to all Australians requires national leadership from the government, and the best technical and commercial leadership from the business community.
History teaches us the need for national leadership on major nation-building infrastructure - and that is why the Government is delivering the NBN.
The work has already begun. We began laying down the first 'track' of the NBN in Tasmania in July this year. It marked an historic milestone in our nation building calendar.
As I said at the time, though it was a small beginning this has the potential to transform our economy, and the potential to transform many aspects of our lives.
If you are living in the bush and you need to see a doctor without leaving your house -- fast broadband is the answer.
If you live in Brisbane and you want to talk regularly face-to-face with a friend or loved one in London - fast broadband is the answer.
If you are running a business in Broome that needs to operate 24 hours, seven days a week - fast broadband is the answer.
If you are a teacher in Geelong wanting to bring the world to the classroom -- fast broadband is the answer.
And if you are a small business in Campbelltown wanting to tender for a government contract and meet the deadline - fast broadband is the answer.
Faster broadband through the NBN will see optical fibre to homes, schools and businesses deliver superfast speeds of 100 megabits per second - 50 times faster than what most people use now. In conjunction with next generation wireless and satellite technologies we will make sure every household, school and business has access to fast broadband.
This will revolutionise teaching in our classrooms, revolutionise health care in our medical centres and our hospitals and will plug our nation into the global economy. It will link together communities and people all across Australia, so that Australians in regional areas are not left out. Significantly it has the potential to help Australia address many of the key challenges of the future, challenges such as the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, dealing with the consequences of an ageing population and arresting the trend towards increased levels of congestion in our major cities.
In other words, our national broadband policy is not about communications policy. It is about health policy; education policy; transport policy; and the whole way that governments meet the needs of our people.
Consider the role of the NBN in tackling climate change: it has been estimated that broadband can help reduce Australia's annual emissions of greenhouse gases by five per cent.
For example, video conferencing can remove the need to travel for face-to-face meetings. The Australian division of Cisco claims that it achieved a 16 per cent reduction in air travel in a single year since adopting videoconferencing and other telepresence facilities.
In 2008 Microsoft Australia saved $18,000 on a single quarterly management meeting of 130 people using its videoconferencing products Live Meeting and Roundtable.
In February 2009, the Australian Government announced that telepresence technology would be deployed across 20 Australian Government and state government locations for use in intergovernmental meetings such as Ministerial Councils. This will lower government travel costs and associated greenhouse emissions by reducing the need for face-to-face meetings.
Another example of the benefits is smart meters. Widespread deployment of smart meters, combined with in-home displays has the potential to improve operational efficiency and significantly reduce the amount of energy used by Australian households. In addition, studies show that greater consumer awareness of energy consumption assists in reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
Smart meters demonstrate the benefits of having a price for energy and an ability for households to be able to manage their energy usage.
Finally, smart grids will see the electricity transmission and distribution network equipped with digital sensors and remote controls; integration of renewable energy sources such as solar and wind; and smart meters communicating information to and from the household. Such a self-aware energy network will enable greater energy efficiency, reduced emissions and better utilisation of renewable energy sources such as solar.
In all these examples it demonstrates the benefits of having both information networks and market signals to help the Australian economy adjust to lower levels of carbon emissions. It is why we need a National Broadband Network - to assist in communicating vast amounts of information.
And it is why we need a price on carbon - that's why we need a Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme. Together, the NBN and CPRS are critical to Australia's efforts to address climate change.
The NBN will also have enormous long-term productivity benefits. Access Economics estimates that across all key services - energy, water, health and transport - the adoption of smart technologies and the roll-out of high-speed broadband could add 70,000 jobs to the Australian economy, and add 1.5 per cent to Australia's GDP within a few years.
This is why, as we emerge from the global financial crisis, it is absolutely critical that we get on with the job and build our critical infrastructure, and that is what we intend to do.
We recognise that long-term infrastructure investments are an essential part of driving productivity and securing prosperity in the years to come. Investments in education and innovation and infrastructure are critical for the nation's long-term productivity growth.
Investment in broadband infrastructure will boost short-term employment opportunities while creating a foundation for our future economy.
* It will create a platform for future innovation.
* It will drive new business efficiencies.
* It will support new smart infrastructure.
* It will open new trade opportunities.
* It will contribute to productivity growth across the economy.
Building a national high speed broadband network will create jobs now, and into the future: 25,000 jobs every year, on average, during the rollout of the network. At its peak, the rollout will support 37,000 jobs.
High speed broadband will also generate additional economic activity. The NBN is expected to generate additional economic activity worth some $37 billion over the life of the project - an additional quarter per cent of GDP every year for the life of the project.
Most importantly, high speed broadband, once built, has the potential to underpin innovation and job creation across every part of our economy. The former Commonwealth Department of Communications estimated that innovation from information and communications technology is the single biggest driver of business productivity, driving 78 per cent of productivity gains in service businesses and 85 per cent in manufacturing businesses.
Broadband allows the rapid transfer of information and saves business time and money and reduces paperwork. Online marketing and sales means access to global markets of consumers without the traditional costs of expansion, and it creates new opportunities for new businesses developing new broadband applications.
The Australian business community increasingly recognises the importance of high speed broadband to our future. A survey by the Australian Industry Group last year reported overwhelming support from business for the National Broadband Network, with more than 85 per cent of CEOs saying that internet access was highly important to their business. More than 93 per cent said the internet was driving productivity and 70 per cent said high-speed broadband created a strategic advantage.
Broadband is also having a transformative effect on the delivery of services and interaction with government, with major benefits to communities across the country.
Australia's population is set to increase to 35 million people over the next 40 years. Ubiquitous broadband, through the NBN, will reduce the pressure on our current population centres by making regional communities both attractive and viable - even the most remote communities.
Consider the experience of the Yorke Peninsula - with a population of just over 11,000 people and a higher than average proportion of people aged over 50. 35 per cent of those employed are primarily in agriculture.
In 2005, broadband arrived on the Yorke Peninsula. In 2008, a report commissioned by the South Australian Government estimated total economic benefits of $21.4 million to the Yorke Peninsula region from the broadband rollout.
Local businesses are now collaborating and trading with partners in distant locations, while doctors are using broadband to transfer medical files and access records. That is why it can never be good enough just to roll out high-speed broadband to the suburbs of our major cities - we must adopt a national approach, as we have done with the plan for the NBN.
This year's Budget recognised the importance of keeping our regional communities connected. We established a $60 million Digital Regions Initiative for digital education, health and emergency services projects in regional, rural and remote communities.
Today I am pleased to announce the first seven successful Digital Regions Initiative projects - a $26.5 million investment that will benefit regional communities across Australia.
In South Australia, we will invest $2.3 million in Ambulance Mobile Connect. Under this scheme, South Australian Ambulance Service vehicles will be equipped with mobile computing terminals connected to a variety of emergency response and medical information systems via a high speed mobile broadband network.
This will give paramedics real-time access to details of an emergency incident and critical patient information. It will also provide a variety of information systems that will improve ambulance response times and support the delivery of clinical care by paramedics.
In the Northern Territory, we will invest $7 million for Health e-Towns to deliver improvements in health and education outcomes for 17 remote towns. This investment will support the development of local networks and ICT enabled health, education and training services.
The health services delivered under this proposal will extend clinical consulting and diagnostic services through new e-health solutions. This project is estimated to reach approximately 30,000 predominantly Indigenous users across the Northern Territory.
In North East Victoria, we will invest $500,000 in Bushfire Spotting and Response technologies. Using remote cameras, telemetry and video conferencing devices connected by a wireless network, this project will help reduce the risks posed by bushfires through enhanced fire detection, management and response capability. Importantly, this proposal is aligned with the priorities identified as a result of the Victorian Bushfires Royal Commission.
The Government will also partner with Hunter New England Health by investing $5 million in Chronic Disease Management systems to provide more effective and equitable health care for consumers in remote and regional areas. These systems will increase the coverage of facility based telehealth services and link chronic disease sufferers in their homes to monitoring, educational and support services. This project will also provide increased network capacity services to isolated sites and improve the reporting and delivery of medical imaging tests.
In Western Australia, we will invest $2.8 million in bushfire prediction technology. This will provide families, communities, organisations and emergency services agencies in rural, regional and remote Australia with bushfire alerts (via SMS and email), access to bushfire simulation maps, fire fighting technique testing, a bushfire planning tool, and the improvement of bushfire resilient infrastructure.
In Tasmania, we will invest $4.9 million in the Connected - Any Student, Any School project. This will enable Tasmanian schools to use technologies to offer exciting and innovative personalised learning opportunities - using practical, hands on and local, national and global e-learning programs and services. In the short term, the focus will be on services in the NBN pilot towns of Scottsdale and Smithton, while in the longer term services will be delivered across the whole of Tasmania as the NBN is deployed.
And finally, I am pleased to announce a $4 million investment to the CDM-Net health project, which stretches across different states. It will assist health practitioners, hospitals, and allied health workers to develop and manage a chronic disease care plan for patients. This project will be led by Barwon Health in Victoria and is very well supported nationally, including by the key partner of Queensland Health.
These are all worthy projects that will co-fund digitally enabled applications to improve services in the key sectors of health, education and emergency services in regional, rural and remote communities across Australia in partnership with state, territory and local governments.
I know some communities are already asking when the NBN will reach them. I am pleased today to be able to report important progress on the NBN.
The NBN Co has been established to build and operate the network.
We have begun a detailed implementation study by a consortium of McKinsey and KPMG to provide information on the optimal market structure and competition regime, access models, technology impacts on policy issues and funding arrangements.
In Tasmania construction on the rollout has begun and the first 10 Tasmanian communities to receive superfast broadband have been announced.
Activities are also beginning on the mainland.
Last week, the Government announced Nextgen Networks had been selected to roll out almost 6,000km of new fibre optic backbone links.
As part of its broader investment in the National Broadband Network, the Government will invest $250 million in this new infrastructure that will connect over 100 regional communities and ultimately benefit over 395,000 people across five states and the Northern Territory.
These links will encourage more competition and better broadband services across regional Australia, and serve as important building blocks to support the requirements of the National Broadband Network. We have also introduced legislation to deliver structural reform for the telecommunications industry so that it is more competitive and innovative, and has stronger protections for consumers.
The Government recognises that the digital future requires change in the way that government communicates with Australian citizens and delivers services across the country. That is why we established the Government 2.0 Taskforce to investigate and report on how we can use information technology to strengthen the relationship between government and the Australian public.
While the Internet is the citizen's most common point of contact with government, it is still largely passive contact - people seeking information or filling in forms. The taskforce has been examining the larger potential of the Internet to help departments and officials directly hear the views and ideas of citizens, to personalise public services, and to allow for ongoing review and improvement of public services.
A competition which the Government 2.0 Taskforce hosted last month invited exponents of "data mash-ups" to transform government information into data bases that could benefit citizens. From this government data, 80 mash-ups were created in just two weeks.
The competition winner, LobbyLens, combined a range of business and electoral data to produce visual representations of links between government organisations, lobbyists and businesses.
Another entry, In their Honour - Mapping Anzac Graves, will, once it is fully developed, help Australians find the burial places of relatives who died in overseas conflicts.
Another entry created a service to report damaged amenities and public facilities to local governments around Australia. The service is known - in a classic case of public service jargon - as It's Buggered Mate.
And it points to a future in which information not only keeps government accountable, it can be fed back to government to help it deliver better services.
Governments and the public service should not fear the digital revolution, but welcome it. That is why my own website is now providing the opportunity for Australians to post comments to my blog and participate virtually in real time discussion directly with me through the PM's Web Chat.
Since the website's relaunch on 15 July this year, we've run four online forums gathering over 1,500 comments, and through a variety of email and twitter updates.
I have also hosted two live web chats with around 45 members of the community. The first web chat on Climate Change was held on 10 August, the second web chat for Young Australians was held on 22 October. These events are the first time an Australian Prime Minister has hosted live, real-time online engagement, and they are just the start.
Like Community Cabinet, they are part of the Government's commitment to a more accessible, open and transparent way of governing.
Our Nation Building - Economic Stimulus Plan website which went live on 25 March this year set a new benchmark for transparency and interactivity by Government. The website provides information and regular updates on all components of the $42 billion Economic Stimulus Package.
The unique My Community interactive Google map allows visitors to track about 50,000 approved projects across the nation. Users can search by suburb, town or postcode to see what projects are underway in their community, across all elements of the Economic Stimulus Plan. As of 12 November, the website had attracted 279,405 unique visits and more than 1.1 million total page views.
The yourHealth website is another Australian Government innovation that provides a wide range of ways for the community to contribute to the national health reform conversation. Since its launch on 27 July this year, yourHealth.gov.au has attracted more than 150,000 visitors and has received more than 1,150 submissions from the community, and its video submission system is an Australian Government first. It provides an alternative to a written submission by allowing the community to film their views and submit them online as a movie.
To date, 78 videos have been published, featuring a wide range of personal reflections and experiences of the health system. This new website allows the Government to listen to the community and lets community members explore, review and respond to comments from other community members, a process which will be further improved with the NBN.
As part of our investment in the NBN, the Government has announced an $80 million Rural and Regional National Broadband Network Initiative. Australia has one of the lowest population densities on the planet and this initiative is designed to ensure digital inclusion across rural and remote areas through three measures:
* expansion of the ABC's Local Regional Broadband Hubs;
* boosting funding to the Digital Regions Initiative to encourage innovative projects in regional, rural and remote communities; and
* establishing a network of Rural NBN Coordinators to help drive broadband take-up and use in regional Australia.
Beyond the NBN, we are continuing to build digital confidence through related government programs and initiatives. Let me mention just a few.
As part of the Super Science initiative, we are funding ICT infrastructure for research organisations.
To address global challenges, such as climate change, we are funding the development of Smart Grid, Smart City in partnership with the energy sector. This demonstration project will deliver a fully integrated, commercial-scale smart grid and will inform the business case for broader industry investment in smart grids in Australia.
As part of the Digital Education Revolution, we have created a National Secondary School Computer Fund to provide new or upgraded ICT for secondary students in Years 9 to 12.
In April this year, we announced funding for the Vocational Education Broadband Network to allow the Tertiary and Further Education sector to access a high quality broadband network tailored to their specific requirements.
The importance of e-Health is recognised around the world as an opportunity to fundamentally reshape and improve health service delivery. The National E-Health Transition Authority was established by the Australian Government and state and territory governments to progress e-Health in Australia.
As business analysts Deloitte reported in September this year, the NBN has the potential to rival the impact of other technology milestones such as the widespread adoption of personal computers in the 1980s and the mass market adoption of mobile phones during the 1990s and 2000s, and as Deloitte's report says, the wider business community should be starting now to plan for the impact of the NBN on 'traditional' operations - which brings me to the purpose of the NBN forum for today and tomorrow.
The challenge at this forum is to help map out the applications, services and business models which will thrive in this new high-speed broadband environment in Australia. It is to ask the question 'what is possible?', to identify the next steps to maximise the growth of Australia's digital economy, and specifically, to identify what measures need to be undertaken by governments, business and community participants, and how do we make sure that all Australians can benefit from the potential of high-speed broadband - so that we use this technology to build a fairer Australia
We need to hear ideas across all the Forum streams - Smart Infrastructure, e-Health, Digital Education, e-Business and e-Community. These are the content, service and application streams with the greatest need and immediate potential for productivity and social benefit.
With the National Broadband Network, we are literally building our nation's future.
The Government is working to deploy smart technologies, promote digital inclusion and review Australia's regulatory framework to support and exploit the opportunities born of the digital revolution and all that will follow.
With these commitments, it then turns to industry to take the lead to ensure that Australia realises the full potential of the digital economy. Your task at this forum is to identify the first level of applications, services and business models and the steps required to make them happen.
Today marks the beginning of a nation-wide conversation of how we turn the digital vision to reality.
We have never pretended this mammoth project is easy. We need your input, your support and your vision. This is important work and I look forward to the results of the time you spend together.